


Lovers In Time

by FanofBttf



Category: Back to the Future (Movies)
Genre: Adventure, F/M, Humor, Incest, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-14
Updated: 2013-10-16
Packaged: 2017-12-26 12:23:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 46,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/965878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanofBttf/pseuds/FanofBttf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Jennifer accompanies Marty on his first journey to 1955, things turn out a little... differently, and before she knows it Jennifer is faced with a hostile and amnesiac Marty whom she will have to forcibly separate from Lorraine... just so that he will exist.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Strange Experiment

**Author's Note:**

> All right, this story basically combines the concepts of "Marty has amnesia after getting hit by Lorraine's father's car, thus falls for her" and "Jennifer goes along with Marty to the 1950s". If either of the two don't appeal to you, you could leave right away. Features Marty/Lorraine, Marty/Jennifer (which is what Jennifer is trying to accomplish) and Jennifer even allowing herself to flirt with George McFly... 
> 
> Oh, and this first chapter is kind of lame, based on the schedule Doc was setting himself up with (needing to send Einstein off before 1:21 AM) and applying whatever changes I could think of to that. It will get better. Eventually.

**1: Chapter One**

October 25, 1985  
3:45 PM PST  
Hill Valley, California 

“Where were we?” 

“Right about here.” 

Jennifer Parker smiled at her boyfriend, Marty McFly, as she uttered those words and moved to kiss him. They had been dating for two years now, and in Jennifer’s mind, she was lucky to have him as a boyfriend. Marty, though sometimes interested in other girls, was mostly loyal to her and he was a good-looking, charming and friendly boy, perhaps a little too immature for her with him constantly getting tardy slips and detentions, but overall, he was a great guy. It was therefore too bad, that today, destiny seemed to be conspiring against their wish to kiss each other. 

The instant before their mouths came together, a familiar and annoying car horn disturbed them, which was followed by her father’s voice calling out: “Jennifer!” 

The girl sighed, and looked at Marty, slightly disappointed. “It’s my dad” she muttered. 

“Right” Marty nodded. 

“I gotta go” Jennifer said, as she started to walk off to the car. 

“I’ll call you tonight!” Marty called after her. 

“I’ll be at my grandma’s” Jennifer replied. “Here, let me give you the number.” 

She wrote down her phone number at the back of the ‘Save the Clock Tower’ flyer. As she was done, Marty frowned, remembering something. “You shouldn’t have bothered” he said. “I have to go to Doc tonight anyway.” 

“To Doc?” Jennifer asked. “Tonight?” 

Marty nodded. “He’s got another one of his experiments going on, at Twin Pines Mall. Wants me to be there at 1:15 AM, if you’ll believe that.” 

“Cool” Jennifer said. “You think he minds if I attend?” 

“You?” Marty laughed. “I guess he won’t, but do you really want to? It’s midnight after all.” 

Jennifer was about to reply to that when her father called out again. “Jennifer, we really should go.” 

“Bye” she told Marty, then softer: “I’ll come over at 12:30, okay?” 

“Fine” Marty replied, shrugging. She nodded, then ran off to the car. Marty smiled after her as she got in, then took a look at the flyer before putting it into his pants’ pocket. He looked up to see Jennifer’s father shoot her an annoyed look, then drive off. 

oooooooo 

Jennifer Parker paced up and down impatiently, as she stared at the house the McFly family lived in. Sure, Marty was probably having trouble staying up this late, but she really hoped that she wouldn’t have to get in and fetch him. One wrong move, and Marty’s parents would find out about the whole enterprise. And Jennifer knew they would flip. 

Suddenly, a rustling sound could be heard behind her. Jennifer turned around, frightened, and was relieved to see Marty appear, carrying his skateboard. “You’re late” she reprimanded him. 

“Sorry” Marty replied. “I had fallen asleep. Doc called me awake to tell me I had to fetch his camera.” 

Jennifer frowned. “He wants to tape the experiment?” she asked. “Has he done that before?” 

Marty shrugged. “Not as far as I can remember, but he might have done experiments without me that he did tape. Why?” 

The girl shook her head. “It’s probably nothing, but I just don’t want those tapes to fall in my father’s hands” she said. “He’s a nice enough guy, but he is overprotective. And your recent ‘misbehavior’ is giving him the willies.” 

Marty rolled his eyes. “Misbehavior?” he quoted. “I doubt a few tardy slips could be called misbehavior, Jennifer.” 

“Well, it is in his eyes” Jennifer said. “We’ve been dating for three years now, and given that argument we had last Tuesday…” She shook her head. “Forget it. We have got other concerns right now.” 

Marty frowned, then nodded. “Yeah” he said. “We’ve got other things to worry about.” 

oooooooo 

They were, in the end, just about a minute late when arriving at the mall. That delay was mostly Jennifer’s fault, for insisting that Marty would walk his skateboard quietly a few blocks away from the McFly house, then ride it to the mall. The teen had been reluctant at first, citing the fact that his parents wouldn’t hear it anyway. “Dad’s not going to hear anything even if a bomb goes off next to him” he told Jennifer. “He’s either deep asleep or busy with that paper work for Biff. As for Mom, she’ll be drunk as usual.” 

In the end, though, Marty had given in, which had caused a slight delay, which had been increased when Marty couldn’t find Doc’s video camera – though Jennifer rapidly fetched it for him. Anyway, Doc was still there when they arrived at Twin Pines Mall. 

Or at least, they assumed he was. For central on the parking lot stood Doc’s scientific services van, but the scientist himself was nowhere to be seen. Einstein was on the lot, though. 

“Hey, Einie” Marty said. “Where’s the Doc, boy?” 

In apparent response, the back of the bus was lowered, revealing a highly modified DeLorean covered by steam. The car rolled out of the bus and parked in front of Marty. Doc got out, coughing, but he smiled as he saw Marty. “Marty! You made it!” He frowned. “And you brought Jennifer with you.” 

“Yeah, I hoped you wouldn’t mind, Doc” Marty said. “She was curious, that’s all.” 

Doc pondered it for a moment. “I suppose it’s all right” he said. “She is your girlfriend, after all, and though I don’t want to share this with anyone just yet…” He suddenly stood and shook his head. “Never mind that, never mind that right now. Welcome to my latest experiment, Marty, Jennifer. This is the big one, the one I’ve been waiting for all my life!” 

“A DeLorean?” Jennifer replied incredulously. 

“Bare with me, and all your questions will be answered” Doc said. “Before we start, though, I’d like to ask you a favor: keep everything you see tonight a secret. All right?” 

“Sure, Doc” Marty said. 

“Uh, yeah, okay” Jennifer nodded. 

“Roll tape and we’ll proceed” Doc said. “We’re on a tight schedule here.” He looked into the camera. “Good evening ladies and gentlemen, I’m Dr. Emmett Brown, standing here on the parking lot of Twin Pines Mall. It’s Saturday morning, October 26th, 1985, 1:18 AM – and this is temporal experiment Number One.” 

“Temporal experiment?” Jennifer repeated, frowning. 

Doc ignored her question, being busy with goading Einstein into the car. “Atta boy, get in there, just your seatbelt on, that’s it!” He frowned. “Hmm, it’s a little late for the clock synchronization… you’ll just have to believe me when I say that Einstein’s clock is in precise synchronization with my control watch.” He showed them, both reading ‘1:19’. 

“Check” Jennifer and Marty both muttered. 

Doc smiled and closed the car, taking a remote control. Marty frowned at that. “You got that thing-” 

He was interrupted when the DeLorean started driving away from them and positioned itself several yards away, on the other side of the lot. Marty gasped. “Guess it is” he managed to say. 

Doc goaded the teens into position, directly in the path of the vehicle. “If my calculations are correct” he muttered, with a smug smile on his face, “when this baby hits eighty-eight miles per hour… you’re going to see some serious shit.” 

Marty frowned at Doc’s choice of words, though he was still too shocked by the remote control. He wasn’t given much time to ponder them, though, as the DeLorean started revving up. A look at the digital speedometer on Doc’s remote told him it was rapidly speeding up. At sixty-two, Doc pulled the lever, and the car shot out towards them. 

As the DeLorean approached, a nervous Jennifer and Marty slowly started to walk away. Doc looked at them in disapproval, then pointed at the car with excitement. “Watch this, watch this!” he exclaimed. 

Marty and Jennifer exchanged glances. Neither of them had any interests in being run over. They were just about to shove Doc out of the way, when the car started letting out flashes. 

Marty frowned, but before he could say anything, the speedometer reached 88. The car lit up, electricity shot around it, and just a few feet before it could hit them, it vanished with a loud blast. Fire trails shot out from the disappearing site, nearly hitting Marty’s feet. Jennifer wasn’t so lucky – her shoe was set on fire. She yelped. 

For the moment, though, Doc didn’t pay attention to her. He was overjoyed at what just happened, causing him to start jumping up and down. “What did I tell you, eighty-eight miles per hour!” he exclaimed. 

“Uh, Doc?” Marty said, trying to keep up with Doc, Jennifer and the shock of seeing a car disappear at the same time and failing to. “Jen could use some help here…” 

“The temporal displacement occurred at 1:20 AM and thirty seconds!” Doc exclaimed. He then looked aside, and saw Jennifer’s burning shoe. “Great Scott!” he exclaimed. 

“What should we do?” Jennifer said, panicked. “Have you got a fire extinguisher around here?” 

The inventor was spared from answering when suddenly, in a giant blast, the car re-appeared. He hastily took control of a remote and made it skid to a halt. Marty couldn’t believe his eyes, but knew that wasn’t important for a moment. Instead, he took the burning shoe and ran over to the car with it. After being scared off with some steam, he got through and extinguished the fire on the shoe with the ice he’d seen attached to the DeLorean. 

As the fire was out, Marty looked around, at a relieved Jennifer. She wasn’t his main focus though. His eyes were on his best friend. “All right, Doc” he said. “What the hell just happened here?” 

oooooooo 

Jennifer saw Doc take a deep breath, as he stared at them. “Shouldn’t that be obvious to you already?” he asked. “You just saw Einstein disappear, and re-appear thirty seconds later.” 

“You invented an invisibility device?” Marty guessed. “Though I suppose that wouldn’t explain the fact that he disappeared, and that he didn’t move those thirty seconds.” 

“Not to mention the fact that invisibility devices are out of my reach anyway” Doc said. “Einstein didn’t become invisible – he skipped those thirty seconds and re-appeared at 1:21, the time I had set for him to arrive.” He looked at them with the air of someone about to say the most important thing in his life. “Marty, Jennifer, I hereby present to you my latest invention: a working time machine.” 

Marty and Jennifer’s eyes went wide. “That’s… that’s impossible” Jennifer said, stunned. 

“Yeah” Marty agreed. “Are you really trying to tell us that you built a time machine… out of a DeLorean?” 

Jennifer frowned at Marty’s emphasis on something like that, but Doc took it as a serious question. “The way I see it, if you’re going to build a time machine out of a car, why not do it with some style.” All right, that made some sense. “Besides, the stainless steel construction made the flux dispersal more efficient in breaking through the time barrier. It doesn’t even damage the car while journeying through the space-time continuum.” He gestured to the car. “But never mind words. Come in and I’ll show you.” 

Marty and Jennifer followed, as Doc opened the car door. Inside was Einstein, barking with joy as he saw his master. “Einstein, you little devil!” Doc exclaimed. “Too bad we don’t have seconds on this chronometer – I could have shown you the watch ran half a minute behind mine then. But it’s still ticking!” He loosened Einstein’s seatbelt and let him out of the car. The dog ran over to Doc’s van. 

“He’s fine” Jennifer muttered, dumbfounded. 

“It sure looks like it” Marty agreed. 

“He should be fine” Doc assured them. “He’s even completely unaware that anything happened. As far as he’s concerned the trip was instantaneous. That’s why his watch is behind mine! But take a look.” He gestured towards the DeLorean. Marty and Jennifer exchanged glances, and then moved closer. 


	2. Going To The Past

**2: Chapter 2**

October 26, 1985  
1:23 AM PST  
Hill Valley, California  


As Marty and Jennifer leaned into the time machine, Marty still holding the camera, Doc started to explain the workings of his invention. “First, you turn the time circuits on” he said, turning a switch which activated a device in the center of the vehicle. “This readout tells you where you’re going, this one tells you where you are, this one tells you where you were. You enter the date in this keypad.”  
“Awesome” Jennifer said, looking on as Doc typed in the date of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. “You must have spent quite some time working on this.” She frowned. “What’s that thing in the center?”  
“That’s the flux capacitor” Doc said. “It is what enables you to travel through time. I came up with it back in 1955.” Marty and Jennifer looked on, as the scientist put in ‘NOV 05 1955 06:00’. “I remember it vividly. I was standing on my toilet, I was hanging a clock, the porcelain was wet, and then I slipped and hit my head on the sink, and when I came to I had a revelation! A vision! A picture in my head, a picture of this!” He looked at them. “This is what makes time travel possible!”  
“Heavy” Marty quipped.  
“It was” Doc said. “Took me about thirty years and my entire family fortune to realize the vision of that date.” He shook his head, realizing something. “Great Scott, has it been that long? Things sure changed around here. I remember when this was all farmland as far as the eye could see. Old Man Peabody owned all of this.” He shook his head again. “He had this crazy idea, about breeding pine trees.”  
“This is great, Doctor Brown” Jennifer said.  
“Yeah” Marty said. “What does it run on, like regular gasoline?”  
“I don’t think that’s very likely, Marty” Jennifer said. She couldn’t imagine something as complex as a time machine being powdered by just gas – but of course, minutes before, she couldn’t have imagined the mere thought of a time machine existing.  
“It isn’t” Doc confirmed. “The car runs on gas, but the time machine parts require something with a little more kick – plutonium!”  
“Plutonium?” Marty said. “Are you telling me, that this sucker is nuclear?”  
“No, this sucker is electrical” Doc corrected him. “But I need a nuclear reaction to generate the 1.21 gigawatts of electricity I need.”  
“That sounds like a lot” Jennifer said. “But one question, though – how on earth did you acquire plutonium?”  
“Well…” Doc began, embarrassed.  
“Did you rip that off?” Marty said, speaking aloud what they both thought.  
“Ssh!” Doc hissed. In a normal voice, he continued: “Of course! From a group of Libyan nationalists. They asked me to build them a bomb, so I took their plutonium and in turn gave them a shoddy bomb casing filled with used pinball machine parts!”  
“That doesn’t sound very smart” Jennifer said, shocked. “What if they come after you?”  
Doc waved that away. “I’ve been very careful the past few days” he said. “In fact, that’s partly why I haven’t been in town. And now that the time machine is fully prepared and tested successfully, I can go to the future and see what I can do about them. At least there, I’ll be safe.” He shrugged. “It was a risk, but I couldn’t think of any other way to acquire plutonium without handing over my research to the government or something like that. Anyway, I’ll be in the future in a few minutes, but first, we need to do something else.” He looked over to Jennifer. “Would you mind getting out of the way? I don’t have a radiation suit for you, and when we reload, I wouldn’t want you to get hurt.”  
“Sure, Doc” Jennifer said. She then started jogging away, as Marty and Doc put on suits. She was still bewildered about everything that had happened. She’d never imagined a time machine could actually work.  
After a few minutes of thinking about everything, Marty waving to her caught her attention. She ran back to see Doc posing for the camera. “I, Dr. Emmett Brown, am about to embark on a historic journey” he said, with more than a little drama.  
“He’s going twenty-five years into the future” Marty clarified for Jennifer’s benefit.  
Doc frowned at Marty disturbing his dramatic narrative, but appeared to shake it off. Then suddenly, he frowned again and in a confusing move, he started laughing. “What am I thinking of? I almost forgot to bring extra plutonium! How did I ever expect to get back, one pellet, one trip! I must be out of my mind!”  
“I thought you’d been planning this for thirty years” Jennifer said.  
Doc shrugged. “I haven’t been planning the actual voyage to the future for that long, and you can forget anything. I’m just glad we caught this on time and-”  
He frowned, looking at the van. Sure enough, Einstein was barking at them. “What is it Einie?” he asked, looking into the direction Einstein was staring. What he saw there made his smile vanish.  
“Oh my God” he said, staring at a blue with white van pulling onto the parking lot. “They found me. I don’t know how, but they found me.” Suddenly panicking, he yelled: “Run for it, you two!”  
“Who, who?” Marty insisted.  
Doc stared at him with panic in his eyes. “Who do you think, the Libyans!”  
“Holy shit!” Marty exclaimed.  
“I’ll draw their fire!” Doc exclaimed.  
“No, Doc, wait!” Marty cried out. Jennifer, who felt concerned about their friend’s actions as well was about to run over to Doc to pull him back, when fear came over her. The Libyans were getting very close now, and they had noticed her. She hesitated one brief moment.  
That moment turned out to be decisive. The Libyan terrorist van came to a halt in front of Doc. Doc tried to shoot at them, only to discover his gun wasn’t loaded. He raised his arms, throwing the gun away. For a moment, nothing happened.  
Then, the terrorist started shooting, and a load of bullets struck Doc’s chest, causing him to go down. Jennifer was horrified at having witnessed someone die in such a horrible way, and barely registered Marty screaming in despair. “NOOOOOOOOOOOO! BASTARDS!”  
The terrorists turned to them, and suddenly frightened, Jennifer and Marty fled to the other side of Doc’s van. However, the Libyans were waiting for them there. Jennifer winced, expecting to die any moment now.  
However, nothing happened. As she looked up, she saw the gun had jammed. She ran to the DeLorean, their one hope for safety, pulling Marty along.  
“But…” Marty protested, looking at Doc’s dead body. Jennifer nodded. She hated to leave Doc behind, too. But they had to. She dragged her virtually shell-shocked boyfriend over to the passenger’s seat and pushed him inside. Jennifer then took the driver’s seat and accelerated away from the terrorists.  
A chase around the mall ensued. The Libyans were close on their tail, but by making clever turns, they managed to dodge the bullets and gain some space. There was a faint buzzing sound at one turn, but Jennifer paid no attention to it. There were more important things now, after all.  
After a minute or so, however, Marty tugged on her arm. “Jennifer?” he asked, pointing backwards. She turned to see a Libyan terrorist pulling out a rocket launcher, and gasped. “Marty…” she began, hesitantly.  
Marty pointed at the gas pedal. “Let’s see if those bastards can do 90” he said. Jennifer nodded. She pressed the pedal, causing the DeLorean to accelerate away from the terrorists. It reached 70, 80, 85…  
At 88 miles per hour, Jennifer saw a strange flash right next to her seat from an object she recognized as the flux capacitor. She was barely given a second to ponder it as the front window lit up and all of a sudden, they were in a completely different place. The transition went so fast that Jennifer nearly lost control of the steering wheel. She did that anyway when the car suddenly bumped into a random scarecrow which had apparently appeared out of nowhere. The car decelerated and finally crashed into a barn.  
“Phew” Jennifer muttered. “That was… close.”  
“I’m never going to let you drive a car again” Marty muttered. He shook his head, frowning. “And I’m never going to wear one of these stupid radiation suits again, either. The hood just keeps falling on my head.” He looked around. “Where are we, anyway?”  
“I don’t know” Jennifer confessed. “There was this big flash and suddenly, we were on a field. And I think I saw that flux capacitor thing lightning up.”  
“The thing that made time travel possible?” Marty said.  
“Yes that’s it – wait a minute!” Jennifer turned to Marty. “We haven’t… we couldn’t…”  
“I suppose there’s one answer for that” Marty said, remembering what Doc had told them. He looked at the time circuit displays. The upper readout read November 5th, 1955. The last readout read October 26th, 1985. But the middle readout, the one indicating the present time, read November 5th, 1955, 06:01 AM.  
“1955” Jennifer repeated. “It can’t be.”  
Marty nodded, just as shocked as she was. Suddenly, though, he frowned. “There are some people standing in that doorway.” He opened the gullwing door. “Come on, they deserve an-”  
What he wanted to say was disrupted by a sudden scream. The farm owners ran off. Marty and Jennifer exchanged glances. “It’s probably the suit” Jennifer said.  
“Suppose so” Marty said. He took off the hood, throwing it to Jennifer, and then walked through the barn to the outside door.  
Jennifer moved over to the passenger’s seat, as she tried to listen closely. She could hear Marty saying something and getting no response. Then, out of a sudden, there was a gunshot, an unfamiliar voice shouting something, another gunshot, and before she could think about what happened, Marty came running back into the barn.  
“What happened?” she asked.  
“Those guys are completely nuts!” Marty said, quickly turning the engine back on. She could see the fright on his face. “They think I’m an alien or something – I would have tried to tell them I wasn’t, but that gun wasn’t something I’d like to talk to!”  
Jennifer nodded, as Marty put the car into reverse, turned it around and raced out of the barn. The DeLorean accelerated off the farm and onto the road, as gunshots could be heard around them. In an inconvenient move, Marty also ran over a pine tree. However, a second later, he did get back onto a solid road. The car accelerated away from the farm, driving away from it and into the world of 1955.  
“This is nuts” Marty muttered, to himself. “This is absolutely, certainly, nuts.”  
“I agree with you on that” Jennifer said. “If this is 1955…”  
“…then we have to get home” Marty said. “I’m not going to stay here. This time period sucks.”  
Jennifer smiled. “I think that is a bit of a one-sided view, Marty. I…”  
She suddenly stopped speaking, as Marty slammed on the brakes. “What?” she asked, bewildered and slightly annoyed.  
In response, Marty pointed out of the window. She looked over his shoulder and easily identified the entrance to Lyon Estates. Only this time, it was just an entrance. There was nothing but empty land behind it.  
“We’re in the past” Jennifer muttered to herself. “We’re really in the past.”  
Marty nodded, opening the gull-wing door to get a closer look at the billboard next to Lyon Estates. As he did so, Jennifer looked at the readouts in the time machine. She suddenly noticed something labeled ‘Plutonium’. It was empty. As it should be, as Dr. Brown had failed to pack a second case of plutonium, back in 1985.  
Marty frowned at her as he returned to the car. “What’s the matter?” he asked.  
In response, Jennifer pointed at the plutonium label. “We’re stuck” she said, with a sigh.  
“It certainly looks like it” Marty muttered, trying to hit the gas. “And on top of it, the engine has decided to breakdown. What are we going to do?”  
“We need to find someone who can help us home” Jennifer said, thoughtfully. “Like… Doc Brown.”  
Marty looked at her. “But he’s dead… but this is 1955, so he isn’t!”  
“That’s right” Jennifer said. “We should be able to get to him. Today was the day he came up with the flux capacitor, right? That’s why we travelled here in the first place.”  
Marty nodded. “All right, we go into town and find him, but first, we hide the time machine behind that billboard” he said. “We can’t just leave it here, it will get stolen.”  
Jennifer nodded. “I suppose so” she agreed.  
Marty nodded, too, then got out. “Come on” he muttered. “We’ve got some work to do.”


	3. Hill Valley, 1955

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Marty and Jennifer get separated for the first time, having dramatic consequences.

**3: Chapter Three**

November 5, 1955  
08:15 AM PST  
Hill Valley, California  


After storing the DeLorean behind the billboard, Marty and Jennifer headed towards Hill Valley. The city was much smaller back in 1955, and it took them over two hours to get there. However, when they did, both of them could agree it had been worth the journey. The entire city had a ‘fifties’ air to it, with all sorts of things they recognized from movies about the era. There was even a working clock.  
“Well, that makes it clear” Jennifer said. “We’re in the past.” She looked at Marty. “So, what do we do now – track down Doc?”  
“We should” Marty muttered. He frowned. “Do you know where Doc lives?”  
Jennifer shook her head. “You’re closer to him than I am, so you ought to know” she answered. “Did he ever move from JFK Drive?”  
“Not that I know” Marty said. “He was living in the same garage back in ’75, when we first met… but now we’re another twenty years back!” He winced. “This is just so unbelievable. We’re in 1955. Thirteen years before we were even born! My parents ought to be teenagers round now!”  
“Same here” Jennifer pointed out. “Although the Parker family isn’t living in Hill Valley right now. We’ve got roots here for sure, but my parents didn’t move back here until 1981, remember?” She frowned. “That would be weird, if we actually got to see them.”  
“It would” Marty agreed. He looked over to a café that was on the same spot the Lou’s Aerobics Studio was in 1985, and smirked. “That café has a phone booth” he said. “They ought to have a phone book, too. We could look Doc up.”  
“That would be the simplest thing to do” Jennifer agreed. “I believe it’s on the place where Lou’s Aerobics Studio is… will be.”  
“You’re right” Marty agreed. “That’s going to be weird… though no weirder than anything around here.” He took her hand. “Come on, let’s take a look inside.”  
Jennifer smiled. “Yeah, no point in hanging around here.” She then spotted something. “Just a minute.”  
“What?”  
Giving no response, Jennifer ran over to the dustbin and pulled out a newspaper. She ignored the main headlines and went straight for the date. “Saturday, November 5th, 1955” she read aloud. “Well, that proves it.”  
“I thought we already established we were in the past” Marty said, confused.  
“We did” Jennifer said. “I just thought that we could bring a little souvenir along. No one will know where we got it from, but hey, if we’re going to be in 1955, why not make the most of it?”  
“I thought we were going right back” Marty said, sighing. “I see where you’re coming from, though. Doc will probably take some time fetching a replacement for the plutonium.” He shook his head. “It’s going to be weird seeing him alive again.”  
“Yeah” Jennifer sympathized. “Perhaps we could warn him? It’s still thirty years in his future, after all.”  
Marty pondered that. “You know, that’s actually a good idea. If we can tell him not to deal with those terrorists… but wouldn’t that prevent us from going back in time in the first place?”  
“You’re right” Jennifer said. “The Libyans chased us up to eighty-eight, after all. If they’re not there, we would stay in 1985. I suppose that we could simply tell Doc then, and he wouldn’t even have to send us home – we’d be going there automatically.”  
“But we’re going to have to find him first” Marty reminded her. “Come on, let’s get into the café.”  
Jennifer smirked, and nodded. She looked around once more into the world of 1955, and then she followed Marty into the café.  


oooooooo  


Marty sucked in a breath, as he entered the café. “Wow” Marty said. “It looks… different.”  
“Of course it looks different!” Jennifer hissed. “The building serves a completely different purpose here in the past!”  
“Hey kid!” Marty looked up to see the shop owner. “What did you do, jump ship?”  
“Huh?” Marty replied. He looked at his clothes and took his hand through his hair – there was no sign of wetness anywhere.  
“What’s with the life preserver” the man clarified. Marty frowned – his vest did look a little like a life preserver did, but he was so used of thinking of it as a normal piece of clothing…  
“New type of clothes” Jennifer blurted out. “Ma-he is, uh, the test subject.”  
“We just want to use the phone” Marty added.  
The man nodded, taking that as an adequate reply. “It’s in the back.” Marty and Jennifer then moved on to the phone booth.  
“Brown, Brown…” Marty muttered, looking through the names on the phone book page. “Great, you’re alive.”  
“Told you so” Jennifer said. “What’s the address?”  
“1640 Riverside Drive” Marty recounted. He frowned at her. “Have you ever heard of that street?”  
“No… though the number is kind of familiar.” Jennifer shrugged. “Maybe you could ask that guy behind the counter?”  
Marty frowned. “You really think I should do that? He didn’t seem to like me very much.”  
Jennifer smirked. “That was just because of your supposed life preserver, Marty. And this is the past, after all. People… and clothes… are different here.”  
“You’re probably right” Marty said. “One more reason to get out of here as soon as possible. Come on.” He ripped the paper out of the phone book and approached the counter. “Listen, do you know where 1640-”  
“Are you gonna order something kid?”  
Marty was startled by the man’s sudden question. “Yeah” he said, recovering. “Give me a Tab.”  
“Tab?” the man repeated. “I can’t give you a Tab unless you order something.”  
“Give me a Pepsi Free” Marty tried.  
“If you want a Pepsi pal, you’re gonna pay for it!” the shop owner exclaimed.  
“We’ll take a coffee” Jennifer interrupted before Marty could say anything more.  
The man frowned. “Two coffees.” He poured some coffee and handed it over to them. Marty and Jennifer took seats next to a tall black-haired kid.  
“You’re not really blending in well, are you Marty?” Jennifer smirked.  
Marty blushed. “I can’t help it” he defended himself. “These fifties people are just so…”  
“Hey McFly!”  
Marty immediately reacted to the sound of his name. He turned around and frowned. That young man who had spoken was roughly his age, but the way he looked and the words he had spoken told him it could only be one person. “Biff?”  
Biff, and his gang of three behind him, kept staring at him and walked over – and then they completely ignored him and went for the guy he was sitting next to instead. “Hey, I’m talking to you McFly, you Irish bug.”  
“Oh hey, Biff, guys, how are you doing” the boy said, in a very familiar voice. Marty squeaked. “That’s my Dad!” he hissed.  
“What?” Jennifer said, out-loud. “Are you sure?” she added, returning to a softer voice – they didn’t want to alert everyone to their presence, after all, and especially not their families.  
Marty nodded, his face pale. “This is freaky. Dad is my age.” He turned back to the conversation. Biff was smirking at George, who was telling Biff that something “wasn’t due ‘till Monday, so…”  
“Hello?” Biff said, tapping George on the skull. “Hello? Anybody home?”  
“He’s acting precisely like he did – or does – in 1985” Marty whispered.  
“Really?” Jennifer asked.  
“Yeah. There’s a few words changed here and there, but it’s mostly the same. Back home, Biff complains about Dad not getting his reports finished, and here, it’s his homework.” He winced. “Geez, was Dad really always this bad?”  
“Apparently so” Jennifer muttered. “I really sympathize with you, Marty. I never knew your Dad could be quite this wimpish… for thirty years.”  
Marty shrugged with a sigh, a movement that indicated he’d been forced to get used to it by now. He turned back to the conversation. Unfortunately, Biff immediately noticed him. “What are you looking at, butthead?” he asked.  
“Hey Biff,” one of Biff’s gang members called, pulling on Marty’s vest, “get a hold of this guy’s life preserver. Dork thinks he’s gonna drown.”  
Biff chuckled, and turned back to George. “So, how about my homework, McFly?”  
“Uh, well, okay, Biff” George said. “I’ll finish it up tonight and run it over to you first thing tomorrow morning.”  
Biff nodded. “Hey not too early, I sleep in Sunday’s. Hey McFly, your shoe’s untied.” George looked, and Biff slapped him. “Don’t you be so gullible, McFly.”  
“Okay” George agreed.  
“I don’t want to see you in here again” Biff reminded him.  
“All right, bye bye” George said, chuckling. He then turned back to his breakfast, as Biff and the gang left the room.  
“Well, that went just about right” Jennifer whispered.  
Marty frowned. “What do you mean?” he asked.  
“With Biff” Jennifer clarified. “I don’t think he would have refrained from hitting on me if he noticed that I was here.” She shuddered. “He reminds me of all the bullies we know back in 1985.”  
“Yeah, I guess you’re right” Marty agreed. “He’s even a lot like Douglas Needles, too. Sure, Needles isn’t really a bully – but he’s nasty enough.” He frowned, and looked at the place next to him. “Hey, where did Dad go?”  
“Out there” Jennifer said, pointing at the window. Marty looked through, and saw his Dad just stepping on a bike, about to pedal away from them. He got off from his chair and hurried over to the road, about to take off in pursuit.  
He was stopped by Jennifer, though. “Marty, what do you think you’re doing!” she asked.  
“See where my Dad is going” Marty said. “What about it?”  
“I was thinking we could go straight to Doc” Jennifer said. “Shouldn’t we stop wasting our time? I thought you wanted to get home.”  
“I do, but I’m curious now” Marty replied. “Why don’t we split up? I’ll go look for Dad, and you go search for Doc. I shouldn’t take too long.”  
Jennifer wanted to say something more, then she changed her mind and nodded reluctantly – she wasn’t going to be able to convince Marty anyway. “Fine. But then I’ll need this.” She snatched the paper with Doc’s phone number and address from Marty’s pocket.  
“Hey, I’ll need that too!” Marty exclaimed. “I can’t find it otherwise!”  
Jennifer smiled somewhat mischievously at him. “Can’t you remember it?”  
“I might forget” Marty pointed out. “In case you’ve forgotten, we’re currently in 1955. If there’s any time period where a person might end up being so distracted that he suffers memory loss…”  
“Fine, fine” Jennifer muttered. “I’ve got some paper here so I’ll duplicate the address.” She took a piece of paper out of her pocket and started writing, while Marty paced up and down. “Dad’s getting away” he told her.  
Jennifer smirked at him. She finished writing the paper, and handed it over to Marty. The teen took out his wallet to put the paper in, then glanced at the paper to see what it read.  
 _Marty McFly,_  
 _I am at 1640 Riverside Drive which is the place where Doctor Emmett Lathrop Brown lives. Please get there too once you finish your supposed mission of tracking down your Dad._  
 _Jennifer._  
Marty winced at the (intentional) length, then noticed Jennifer taking his wallet out of his hand and fumbling with it. “What are you doing?”  
“I need your driver’s license” Jennifer said. “It has ‘1968’ on it. To prove to Doc we’re really from the future.”  
“But haven’t you got a license of your own?” Marty replied, confused.  
“Yeah, but knowing Doc, he won’t be satisfied so easy.”  
“Fine” Marty grumbled, getting more and more anxious now. “Here’s my license. And my passport. Why don’t you take everything while you’re at it.” He emptied the wallet into Jennifer’s hands, stuck the piece of paper in it and ran off, the wallet still in his hand. Jennifer smirked at him, then turned the other way.  
For several minutes, Marty felt that after all that arguing with Jennifer, his entire mission had become useless. He couldn’t find his Dad anywhere anymore. He must have gone home in the minute or so he’d spent arguing with Jennifer. That was just perfect.  
Then, as he was about to give up hope, Marty noticed a familiar bike leaning against a tree. He barely had a second to wonder if it was George’s until he saw his father literally falling out of the tree. Marty gasped, then was relieved to see his father was all right, then gasped again. His father had dropped right in the way of an upcoming car.  
The teen gawked and took off across the street and towards his father, wondering if it might be too late already. The car was slowing down, but it was still approaching George at an alarming rate…  
BANG! Marty collided with his teenage father, knocking him out of the way. Within a fraction of a second later, the car collided with him. He barely registered his right hand letting go of his wallet as he went down and hit his skull hard on the unforgiving pavement. It knocked him out in one moment. The car’s front wheel managed to come to a halt inches before it would hit Marty’s head. To the car driver, though, it looked like the damage had already been done nevertheless.


	4. Convincing The Doc

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All right, this is the final chapter until I get reviews, in which Jennifer meets up with Doc. Hopefully it will make you become interested in the rest of the plot. If it's incredibly bad fanfic, just say so as well.

**4: Chapter Four**

November 5, 1955  
10:00 AM PST  
Hill Valley, California

Jennifer Parker took a deep breath, as she approached Dr. Brown’s house. It was a very big mansion, with a familiar looking garage next to it. As she headed up the driveway, she wondered what to say. As she had already figured out, Dr. Brown would be unlikely to believe her story about the future right away.  
Of course, she did have her identification with her, and Marty’s. And then there was the time machine. Though it was parked behind the billboard way outside of town, it would still serve as valuable proof. And of course, Doc would already know about the existence of time travel – he had told her that today was the day he invented it.  
Jennifer frowned. She remembered what Doc had told her. Today, he would stand on his toilet, hang a clock, slip and hit his head on the sink and come up with the flux capacitor, which was what made time travel possible. If he didn’t come up with it… the future might look different. Very different. They wouldn’t even have been able to come there. Of course, if they never got to 1955 because they had no time machine, it would also mean that they should still be at home, which made that the easy way out. However, Jennifer was sure future Doc didn’t like the thought of his greatest invention never being built.  
 _At least if he didn’t build that invention, he would still be alive in 1985_ , Jennifer thought. She shivered. She and Doc Brown had never been very close, not the way he and Marty were, but she still didn’t like the thought of him dying.  
Well, that was a matter that they had to attend later. For now, convincing Doc that time travel existed was the best option. She took another deep breath and started walking up to the door.  
Moments before she reached the house, Jennifer suddenly heard a scream from inside. She rushed over to the direction of the noise (it was on the other side of the house) and discovered that there was a window, but it was quite high. Luckily, Doc (never the cleanest type) had some boxes lying next to the garage, so after fetching them, Jennifer managed to make a shaky ‘staircase’ to climb upon.  
When she looked through the window, Jennifer instantly saw what happened. Doctor Brown was there, very familiar though also slightly younger than how she had last seen him, and he was knocked out against the sink. She didn’t know whether this was good news or bad news – the good news was that the events leading up to him conceiving the flux capacitor had happened. The bad news was that he was unable to let her in right now.  
Jennifer figured that she’d best call out to him – she couldn’t stand here forever waiting for him to wake up naturally. “Doctor Brown?” she called out. “Doc?”  
The scientist let out a groan, as he began to come to. “Great Scott” he muttered. “Who are you?”  
“My name is Jennifer” Jennifer said, figuring it would be best to remain honest. “Jennifer Parker.” She looked at Doc, who was not making any moves to get up from the floor. “Can I help you?”  
Doc nodded. “You can go inside and fetch me some aspirin from the kitchen if you want.”  
Jennifer looked confused. “But I don’t have a key” she replied.  
Doc shook his head, frowning. “The door isn’t locked.”  
Jennifer let out a chuckle. That was the 1950s for you. Back home everyone would have locked their doors, or they would even be automatically locked. In 1955, however, such an idea was very uncommon, especially in a quiet town like Hill Valley. It appeared very unnatural to Jennifer.  
As she got in through the door which was, indeed, unlocked, it took her a few tries before she could find the kitchen and then the bathroom. When she got there, though, she found Doc frantically writing on some paper. Though blood was dripping from his head, his headache seemed to be forgotten.  
“Doctor Brown?” Jennifer said, holding up the aspirin.  
“Ah, miss Parker” Doc replied. “Thank you for the aspirin, but I don’t think I really need it anymore. Not yet, anyway. I need to get my thoughts down – I came up with a great new invention just now.”  
“The flux capacitor?” Jennifer guessed, smirking. “The thing that makes time travel possible?”  
“Precisely! I made the calculations, and they all work! I…” Doc suddenly turned around and his eyes went wide. “How did you know that!”  
Jennifer smiled. “Because I used it, Dr. Brown. I’m from the future. I came here in a time machine which you invented and now I need your help, to get back to the year 1985.”  
Doc frowned. “Do you really expect me to believe that?” he asked.  
“Hey, I knew about your flux capacitor story” Jennifer said.  
“True, but you could have read my mind somehow.” Doc shrugged. “That’s not really plausible either, but neither is your story.”  
“I’ve got some more proof” Jennifer responded. She took out her wallet and the content of Marty’s. “This is a picture of me. The writing on the back says it was taken in 1983. This is my boyfriend’s driving license. Look at his birth date – he hasn’t even been born yet!”  
“1968” Doc read. “That could have been a joke.”  
“This is a picture of my boyfriend’s siblings and him” Jennifer said, digging out another photograph she thought useful. “Look at the sweatshirt of his sister, Dr. Brown. Class of 1984?”  
Doc frowned. “What are you doing with all those possessions of your boyfriend, miss Parker?”  
“He gave them to me” Jennifer said. “We came to 1955 together, but we separated earlier this morning after he wanted to chase his future Dad.”  
Doc shook his head in disapproval. “Doesn’t he know that could alter history?” he muttered. “If his parents take a different course from the one they took originally, his entire future could change.”  
Jennifer looked at him for a moment. “You mean you believe me?” she asked.  
Doc thought about it for a few seconds, but then he nodded. “I might not have believed those photographs alone, and perhaps not just the flux capacitor story either, but together… well, it’s enough proof to at least make me willing to look at your time machine.”  
“We hid it behind the billboard at Lyon Estates” Jennifer recalled. “Marty’s parents live there in the future. We thought we’d better not drive it around town – it’s rather unconventional for the time period.”  
“If it was, that was very clever” Doc said. “We’d better wait until tonight to pick it up, then. Wouldn’t want to drive it around Hill Valley if it would attract any looks.” He looked at Jennifer. “And until then, I’d like for you to stay inside. We can’t risk altering history too much.”  
“Fine, I guess” Jennifer replied. “What about Marty, though?”  
“Well, there’s not much I can do about him right now” Doc replied. “When he shows up, I’ll tell him to stay inside as well. Anything you two do could have serious repercussions on future events!”  
“Yeah, I guess so” Jennifer replied, sighing. “Well, even that would be good, since it would mean Marty would be here. I would’ve expected him to be here much sooner.” She shook her head. “Well, no use worrying about that right now. He’ll get here sooner or later, and being forced to wait here isn’t that bad either. At least it means we’ve got an extra day we don’t have to go to school.”  
Doc chuckled. “You don’t like school?” he asked.  
“Well, I wouldn’t say I especially dislike it, no more than the average student at least” Jennifer said. “An extra weekend day is something I wouldn’t pass up, though. And Marty – well, he could use his tardy slips for wallpaper. He’ll be glad not to have to go to school for today.” She sighed. “I just wonder where he is.”  
“I wish I could help you” Doc said. “For now, though, you’ll just have to wait. I should have something to do for you during that time, though… and not me asking you all sorts of future things. Do you like to read?”  
“It depends” Jennifer said. “What kind of book I’m reading makes a big difference. Marty’s not much of a reader, though – but when he gets here, we can talk to each other anyway.”  
“I see” Doc said. He steered her into the living room. “But for now, I think I do have interesting reading material for you…”  


oooooooo  


“Well, miss Parker, I think it’s dark enough to leave… hey, what are you doing?”  
Jennifer looked up from the window she was staring out of. “I was just taking a look outside” she replied. “See if Marty was coming up here.”  
Doc sighed. “I’m sorry, Jennifer” he said. “I haven’t got a clue where he went either. Perhaps he stayed at his father’s house? You told me he was going to chase after him.”  
Jennifer contemplated that, then shook her head. “No way” she said. “He would’ve called me then.”  
“Perhaps he doesn’t know how contemporary phones work” Doc guessed.  
Jennifer rolled her eyes. “Marty isn’t that stupid” she said, nearly defensively. “And phones today aren’t really different from how they are… now.” It was strange to realize that 1955 was now the present, whereas 1985 was still thirty years in the future.  
Doc nodded. “I suppose so” he said. “Well, we can’t wait all day for him. Let’s take a look at the place you stored the time vehicle.”  
Jennifer agreed, and she and Doc drove over to the billboard in Doc’s Packard. It took them a few minutes to get there, time which Jennifer mostly spent wrecking her mind and trying to come up with possibilities of where Marty could be. He couldn’t be at Lyon Estates, could he?  
Well, he could, but Jennifer soon found out that he wasn’t. A look around the parking site of the time machine made clear that Marty wasn’t anywhere near. Luckily, Doc could care less.  
“That’s your time machine?” he whispered. “It looks… odd, I agree. Fascinating.”  
“Yeah” Jennifer agreed. “There was something wrong with the starter, though. Hope you can fix it.”  
“I should be able to” Doc said. “How does one get inside?”  
In response, Jennifer lifted up one of the car doors. Suddenly recognizing something, she pointed at the flux capacitor, which was merrily fluxing away in the center of the car.  
Doc’s eyes went wide as he recognized it. “IT WORKS!” he exclaimed, grabbing Jennifer’s shoulders. “I finally invented something that works!”  
Jennifer pulled herself loose from Doc’s grasp and nodded. “It certainly does.”  
“Let’s get this thing over to my laboratory” Doc muttered, his mind already racing with ideas. “We’ve got to get you… and your boyfriend… home!”


	5. Introducing Lorraine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first chapter that is truly split into two parts: one showing Jennifer's POV, the other Marty's. Naturally, both don't experience the events the other goes through. Oh, and the reason I refer to Marty as 'the boy' for most of his section, is because it's written from his POV, and he doesn't know what his name is.

**5: Chapter Five**

November 5, 1955  
11:30 PM PST  
Hill Valley, California 

Jennifer frowned, as she was fumbling with the video player. It was Doc's camera and Marty might have known how to use it, but she never was that good with technical stuff, especially not something which she had never used before. However, she didn’t really dare to let Doc work it out. He hadn’t even ever seen this type of camera before. At least she, being a 1980s girl, should be able to figure it out.  
It took a few tries and one scary moment when she thought the video camera was going to explode, but eventually she managed to get the camera connected to Doc’s 1950s black and white television. “Okay, Doc,” she said, noticing that she hadn’t called him ‘Dr. Brown’, like she was used to, for quite some time now, “this is it.”  
The video player started playing. “Never mind that,” 1985 Doc was saying, “never mind that right now.”  
“Why that’s me!” present-day Doc exclaimed. “Look at me, I’m an old man!”  
“You don’t really look all that different to me” Jennifer said. “I suppose you could see the differences, though.”  
“I can” Doc replied. “Well, at least I still got my hair. But what on earth am I wearing?”  
“It’s a radiation suit” Jennifer informed him.  
“Radiation suit” Doc repeated. “Of course, because of all the fall-out from the atomic wars!” He turned to the camera. “This is truly amazing. A portable television studio. Even though it does appear to be hard to figure out how it works.”  
Jennifer blushed fiercely, and tried to turn Doc’s attention back to the video. She started fast forwarding it, wincing as she came across parts that included Marty. Finally, she arrived at the relevant part. “This is it” she told Doc, who was still gazing intently at the video camera. “The part where you speak about the time machine.”  
“No, this sucker is electrical” 1985 Doc was saying. “But I need a nuclear reaction for the 1.21 gigawatts of electricity I need.”  
“What did I just say?”  
“1.21… jiggowatts” Jennifer said, stumbling over the word.  
Doc gasped in astonishment. “1.21 gigawatts!” he exclaimed, running out of the room. “1.21 gigawatts! Great Scott!”  
“Doc!” Jennifer exclaimed, as she tried to run after him. “I don’t even know what a gigawatt is!”  
As she came into the other room, Jennifer saw Doc was looking at his portrait of Thomas Edison. “How could I have been so careless?” he asked the portrait. “1.21 gigawatts! Tom, how am I ever gonna generate that kind of power? It can’t be done, can it?”  
Jennifer felt slightly freaked out by Doc interacting with his portraits like that, but she figured it didn’t matter right now. “Come on, Doc,” she pleaded, “we’ve got to be able to fix this. The future you used plutonium, so…”  
“Plutonium!” Doc repeated. “I’m sure that in 1985, plutonium will be available in every corner drug store, but in 1955, it’s just a little hard to come by! Jennifer, I’m sorry, but I’m afraid you, and your boyfriend, wherever he might be, are stuck here!”  
Jennifer was appalled. “Stuck here?” she repeated. “We can’t be stuck here!” She threw her hands into the air with desperation. “I mean… Doctor Brown! Doc! It’s not like plutonium is even that common in 1985, but you still managed it! And you told us yourself… in the future… that if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything!”  
“Well, that’s good advice” Doc replied. “But in this case, I am afraid I can’t follow it. Although we could try to duplicate the source of where my future self got that plutonium from…”  
“That wouldn’t be a very good idea,” Jennifer said, suddenly sad, “considering the fact that it got you shot.”  
“What?” Doc exclaimed, horrified.  
“You cheated some Libyan terrorists out of plutonium” Jennifer said. “I don’t know why, I suppose that was the only way to get some. They found out, though, and they showed up at the experiment and killed you. Marty and I fled in the time machine, and that’s how we got back to 1955.”  
“Great Scott!” Doc said. “I’ll have to do something to prevent that, thirty years from now. Thank you, Jennifer.” Jennifer nodded in acknowledgement. “But anyway, that doesn’t appear to be a good way to get plutonium. I’ll have to think of something else.”  
“Isn’t there anything else that will generate that much power?” Jennifer asked.  
“Nothing” Doc said, depressed. “Well, except lightning. But I doubt you know of a hidden source of that being around somewhere.”  
“Well, actually…” Jennifer said, in a half-hearted attempt at a joke. Then, she frowned.  
“What’s the matter?” Doc asked.  
“It’s the clock” Jennifer said.  
“Which one?” Doc asked. It was a good question, because the house contained quite some clocks. But Jennifer was talking about neither of them.  
“The clock in the Courthouse Square!” Jennifer said. “It’s going to be struck by lightning next Saturday night… November 12th. Stopped at 10:04 PM. Marty was given a flyer about it yesterday… yesterday in 1985. If he still had it on him, it might just have been in his wallet…” She sorted through the stuff Marty had given here, and to her immense relief, she found the paper. “This is it” she said, handing it over to Doc.  
“Indeed it is” Doc said, as he looked at the paper, getting more and more excited. “This is the answer! Lightning _will_ strike the clock tower next Saturday night at precisely 10:04 PM! If we can somehow harness it… channel it into the flux capacitor… it just might work!” He looked at Jennifer. “Next Saturday night, we’ll be sending you back… to the future!”  
“We need to find Marty first” Jennifer pointed out.  
“We’ll see to that” Doc promised. “Right now, you should be getting to bed. It’s rather late already.”  
Jennifer had to admit that she did feel tired. “But what about Marty!” she exclaimed once more. “We can’t just leave him! Who knows where he is right now!”  
“Well, that’s the whole point, isn’t it?” Doc replied. “We haven’t got a clue. And since we haven’t got a clue it’s quite useless to start looking for him, especially when you’re in need of sleep.” Doc put a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sure this Marty of yours can take care of himself.”  
Jennifer sighed, resigning herself to her fate. She followed Doc up the stairs and into her room. It took her very limited time to settle into the bed, despite the fact that she didn’t have any proper clothes for it and was unused to her surroundings. However, despite her comfortable bed and her exhaustion, Marty continued to plague her thoughts. It wasn’t until sometime after midnight that she finally succumbed to her exhaustion and fell asleep, all while wondering where her boyfriend could possibly be. 

oooooooo 

The young man groaned, as he, slowly but surely, began to come to. He immediately noticed that he had a terrible headache. Also, his mind wasn’t very clear. He rolled over, groaned again, and opened and shut his mouth a few times.  
As he did so, though, he could hear the sound of someone rising from a chair. A figure walked over to him, though he couldn’t see who it might be – it was very dark. “There, there now” a soft, young, feminine voice spoke to him, as she pressed something cold and wet to his forehead. “You’ve been asleep for almost a whole day now.”  
“I…” the boy said, struggling to come up with something to say. “I… where am I?”  
“You’re in my room” the girl replied. “Wait, I’ll turn on the lights.”  
The girl moved over to the light switch, as the boy slowly tried to get closer to a sitting position. He then blinked, as the room was suddenly lit. He snapped his eyes shut for a moment, trying to readjust to the light. As he was sure he could bear it, he opened his eyes again, looked directly towards the direction of the voice – and gasped.  
Sitting on the bed next to his was a beautiful girl his age. She had nice curly brown hair, gorgeous brown eyes, and a very pretty face. “You’re… you’re…” the boy whispered. “Who are you?”  
“My name is Lorraine” the girl told him, taking off her jacket – which made her look even more attractive, in his opinion – and looking at him. “Lorraine Baines.”  
“What a beautiful name” the boy replied, smiling at her. “I’m…”  
It suddenly occurred to him that he hadn’t got a clue of what his name was. In fact, he didn’t know anything at all anymore. He didn’t remember anything before waking up to Lorraine here. “I don’t know” he whispered, shocked. “I… I can’t remember a thing.”  
Lorraine gasped. “You mean you’ve got amnesia?” she said.  
“Yeah” the boy said. He looked around, bewildered. “How did I get here? Do you know who I am?”  
“My father hit you with the car” Lorraine told him. “We don’t know you, though. Nevertheless, Dad wanted us to tend to you, and I volunteered.” She looked at the clock, which was telling him it was five o’clock in the morning. “That was yesterday at eight-thirty… I’ve been here for over twenty-one hours now.” She yawned.  
“That’s impressive” the boy said, smiling at her. “Thanks, Lorraine.” He winced. “My head just hurts terribly.”  
Lorraine’s eyes widened, and she reached over to touch his head with the cold compress again. The boy leaned back, and looked at her with a smile. She really was the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen – of course, he didn’t remember seeing any other girl, but she was definitely beautiful.  
“Anyway,” Lorraine added, as she finished, “we tried to find out about you, too – and we then found a wallet close to where you’d been hit. There was a piece of paper in it, and it was mostly ruined because it had fallen into a pool, but some part was still intact.” She walked over to a chest, on top of which some pants were stacked – the boy guessed those were his. She then walked back to him and handed him the paper. “See for yourself.”  
The boy took the paper and examined it. It was mostly unreadable, but the parts he could still identify read: 

_Marty McFly,_  
 _I am at 1 4 vers ve  
_ _oct ow_

The boy looked at the unfamiliar handwriting of the piece of paper, which he supposed was addressed to him. So that meant that he was Marty McFly.  
“Marty” the boy whispered. “So my name is… probably… Marty McFly. It sounds right.” He looked up at Lorraine, and was about to say something else, when he groaned. “My head hurts” he said, by means of an apology.  
“You’d better sleep some more” Lorraine said. “If you got knocked out hard enough to have amnesia, you should be resting. I’ll wake at your bedside. You can call me if you wake up and need something.” She smiled. “And if I do fall asleep and you see it, don’t hesitate to wake me up.”  
“I won’t” the boy-who-probably-was-Marty promised, smiling at her. “Thanks, Lorraine. I really appreciate this.”  
He rolled over, and started to doze off, all the while thinking about what had happened. He now knew his name was Marty McFly, and he’d hit his head, causing him to have amnesia. He just felt terribly confused, and was anxious to find out more about himself.  
However, to his surprise, he was also interested in another subject – Lorraine. She was a beautiful girl and was willing to nurse him back to health, all of which were qualities that made him instantly take a shine to her. Also, though Lorraine had said she didn’t know him, he had the feeling there was a bond between them, a bond that wasn’t there with other people (although admittedly he hadn’t met anybody else yet, but that could change). And if she could, perhaps unknowingly, provide some kind of clue towards his true identity... well, then he wouldn't mind exploring that bond.  
Thinking of Lorraine, Marty fell back asleep with a faint smile on his face.


	6. Getting Acquainted

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter, focusing entirely on Marty. The next will feature Jennifer again.

**6: Chapter Six**

November 6, 1955  
11:00 AM PST  
Hill Valley, California

That morning, Marty McFly woke up with some kind of satisfaction. At least this time, his memory hadn’t faded. He still knew who he was, and where he was. And he even felt somewhat better than he had that night. Also – though that was admittedly a little exaggerated – Marty felt he knew who he owed that to.  
He opened his eyes and looked towards the other bed. Sure enough, Lorraine was there, reading a magazine of some sorts. He coughed to make her aware of his presence, which made her startle. “Marty!” Lorraine exclaimed. “You’re up! How do you feel?”  
“Better” Marty said, smiling. He sat up, moving carefully to ensure he didn’t go through any great pains, then looked back at her. “Have you been here all night?”  
“Yeah” Lorraine replied. “Mom and Dad are off to Church right now – it’s Sunday. They’ve taken my brothers Milton and Toby with them, and my sister Sally. Little Joey is still in the house, but he’s little more than a baby. I told them, and they agreed, that I couldn’t go with them because I had to watch you.”  
“Thanks, I guess” Marty replied, as his mind processed this new information about Lorraine’s family. “Did you tell them I woke up last night?”  
Lorraine blushed. “Actually, I didn’t do that” she admitted. “They might have wanted to stay then, and Dad would have wanted to wake you up. I knew you wouldn’t want that and, well, I kind of wanted to speak to you in private.”  
Marty nodded, deciding not to inquire any further. He put his legs over the edge of the bed in an attempt to get off. Lorraine blushed again. “Uh, you might be in for a surprise there” she said.  
For a moment, Marty didn’t understand what she meant. As he pulled the blanket away, he did, though. His pants were gone, and he suddenly noticed he was down to nothing but his underwear. Come to think of it, Lorraine had been searching through his pants last night, but he hadn’t given much thought to it, and thus he hadn’t been expecting this. “Where’re my pants?” he demanded, shocked.  
“Over there” Lorraine stammered, pointing. “On my hope chest.” She looked at his underwear. “I’ve never seen purple underwear before, Marty.”  
“Neither have I” Marty muttered, looking at them. He couldn’t help but feel appalled by the fact that Lorraine had taken his pants off. He assumed she had had a reason for it, but… “Why did you take my pants off?” he asked.  
“You were hurt” Lorraine said. “Mother and I thought you would be better off without them, since the blood would be able to flow undisturbed. Those pants were really tight.”  
“Ah.” Marty supposed that made some sense, at least. “Still, it’s a bit uncomfortable.”  
“I guess it is” Lorraine said, blushing. “Sorry, Marty. By the way, I didn’t tell you last night, but we were kind of confused about your identity at first.”  
“What do you mean?” Marty asked.  
In response, Lorraine walked over to him and put her finger on the top of his underwear. As Marty looked at where she was pointing, he could see it read ‘CALVIN KLEIN’. “We initially thought your name was Calvin” Lorraine said. “Then, Dad found your wallet, and we weren’t sure anymore.” She shrugged. “Which name do you prefer?”  
“Well, I certainly don’t remember what my name is” Marty said. “I think I like ‘Marty McFly’ better, though.” He shrugged. “Perhaps later I’ll be able to recall why there’s a different name on here.”  
“I hope so” Lorraine said. As Marty looked down, he realized that she still hadn’t taken her finger off his underwear, holding it consistently in the same spot. He blushed, trying to ignore the fact that her soft touch didn’t feel all too bad. He reached down and took her hand off, staring her in the eye.  
“What?” Lorraine asked, innocently.  
Marty stared at her for a few moments. “Nothing” he finally decided.  
“I thought as much” Lorraine said, smirking. Marty groaned – he hadn’t been that transparent about being attracted to her, had he? – but fortunately Lorraine didn’t press the issue, instead changing the subject. “Anyway, how’s your head?”  
“I think it’s fine” Marty said, touching the bruise. “I’m going to need a few more days to get over this ache, though.”  
“I see” Lorraine said, walking towards the bed. “Do you mind if I sit here?” she asked.  
“No, that’s fine” Marty replied, putting the blanket back on its place.  
Lorraine smiled, sitting down next to Marty. “That’s a really big bruise you got there” she said, gently taking his head into her hands. Marty noticed her head was moving over to his and she was pulling his face closer, while ruffling a hand through his hair. The teen suddenly got the feeling Lorraine was going to kiss him. “Uh…” he began, as Lorraine was already moving to close the gap between their lips.  
“Lorraine! Are you up there?”  
In an instant, Lorraine let go of Marty, almost causing him to fall off the bed. “Oh my God, it’s my Mum!” she whispered. “They’re back already! Quick! Put your pants back on!”  
“I thought your mother helped you take them off!” Marty protested. He frowned. “Or did she?”  
Lorraine blushed fiercely. “Well, not exactly…” she began, then sighed as Marty continued to stare at her. “All right, she doesn’t know anything about it. Please, don’t tell her!”  
“I won’t say a thing” Marty promised.  
Lorraine sighed with relief. “Great. Thanks, Marty.” She ran off towards the stairs.  
As Marty was left alone, he got some time to look around while putting on his pants. He could see various pictures of boys, especially prominent around a mirror. It was obvious that Lorraine had an aggressive interest in the opposite sex, and he was probably her latest crush. Marty felt like he should be appalled at the way she’d just taken his pants off. He didn’t even know why he had promised not to tell anybody… perhaps it was because, for all Lorraine had done to him, she’d still nursed him back to health... or at least, he felt healthy enough now. Marty knew he was grateful to her for that. And she was beautiful. Could he really stay mad at her?  
The teen shrugged, and walked in the direction of the staircase. A middle-aged woman was just getting up the stairs. “Ah, good morning Marty” she said. “I’m Stella Baines, Lorraine’s mother. I’m not sure if she’s told you yet, but she’s been taking care of you ever since my husband hit you with the car. I think it’s great of her.”  
“Yeah… she did a great job, and so unselfish too” Marty said, winking at Lorraine. She managed to suppress a giggle, but her cheeks reddened nevertheless.  
“Good” Mrs. Baines said. “Everyone is in the house now, so you’ll have a chance to meet all of us.” She walked down the stairs, Marty and Lorraine following. “So, anyway Marty, how long have you been in port?”  
“In port?” Marty repeated.  
“I guessed you’re a sailor, that’s why you are wearing that life preserver” Mrs. Baines said, smiling at him.  
“Mother, Marty says he has amnesia” Lorraine said. “He doesn’t remember anything that happened before he woke up.”  
“That’s horrible” Mrs. Baines replied, shocked. “I suppose we can’t call your parents, then – if you don’t know who they are.”  
“That’s right, Mrs. Baines” Marty said. “I don’t know anything about myself but my name. And even that’s just because I saw it on that note.”  
“Yes, thank goodness we had that” Mrs. Baines said. They were arriving in the living room, and Marty could see an older gentleman of Stella’s age and several young kids. “That is Samuel Baines, my husband.”  
“What were you doing out in the street, a kid your age?” Mr. Baines asked, angrily.  
“Don’t pay any attention to him, he’s in one of his moods” Mrs. Baines said. “Well, you already know Lorraine. This is Milton, this is Sally, and over there in the playpen is little baby Joey.”  
“Nice to meet you” Marty said, smiling at the kids.  
“Lorraine, why don’t you show him around the house” Mrs. Baines ordered. “You could take him outside, too, maybe it’ll jog his memory. Remember, lunch is exactly at noon.”  
“I will, mother” Lorraine said. Stella nodded at her before walking away. Lorraine turned to Marty. “So, what do you want to see?”  
Marty shrugged. “Lead the way” he said. “You’re the one who knows this house.”  
Lorraine smiled at him. “That’s true.” She walked into the living room, and Marty followed, as they began the introduction. 

oooooooo

By that evening, Marty was fairly well-acquainted with every member of the Baines family, and knew their interests and their odd personality quirks – which Lorraine had told him with a perspective that was more than a little biased. The only one who he didn’t know much about yet was, ironically, himself. His own past remained a mystery to him, and though he was felling a little better now, his memory wasn’t showing it. It just remained one big gap.  
The teen sighed, as he sat down on the chair next to Lorraine, and he slowly began to eat his dinner. He had been troubling himself all day, trying to get his memory to update, but it just wouldn’t come. It probably wouldn’t for quite some time.  
“So, Marty, what do you think of our house?” Lorraine’s mother asked.  
“It looks very nice, from what I’ve seen of it” Marty replied. “The neighborhood looks good, too. Lorraine told me you’ve been living here for nine years now.”  
“That’s right” Mrs. Baines confirmed. She sighed. “And you still haven’t got a clue where you might live?”  
“I’m afraid not” Marty said, sighing. “I’ve pained my brain all day, but there is no result forthcoming. I think it’s not anywhere near, though. I didn’t recognize the area when I went outside.”  
“I’m sorry, Marty” Lorraine said, putting a hand on his shoulder.  
“Don’t be” Marty responded. “You did what you could. I suppose I could start looking for my family, but that’s kind of hard when the only thing I know is their last name. Do you know any McFly’s around town?”  
“No” Lorraine’s mother answered. “We don’t know everyone, though. Have you heard of anyone named so, Lorraine? Perhaps at school?”  
“I don’t think I have…” Lorraine replied, “but I could be mistaken, and I don’t know everyone at school. Perhaps we should go there together tomorrow? Maybe that’ll jog your memory.”  
“Are you suggesting that Marty stays with us tonight?” Mrs. Baines replied. “I don’t know, but…”  
“Well, we just established that he wouldn’t be able to find his parents any time soon” Lorraine said. “With that in mind, I think we should best let him stay the night. After all, Dad did almost kill him with the car.”  
“Don’t remind me” Mr. Baines said. “He shouldn’t have been out there in the first place!”  
Marty looked at him. “I wish I could tell you what I was doing there” he said. “That would mean that I knew something from before the accident. You didn't see anything that would help me finding out who I was?”  
“Come to think of it, yes” Mr. Baines said, thoughtfully. “You were pushing another kid out of the way. I don’t know who it was, though. After you got hit, the other kid took a bicycle and raced away from the house with it.”  
“See?” Lorraine insisted. “Then Marty did have a reason to be out there – he was saving his friend! Why are you blaming him for that, Dad!”  
Lorraine’s father made a groan of displeasure. “Fine, I won’t blame him for that” he muttered. “I will blame him for being friends with a kid like that in the first place, though. What idiot would just be in the middle of the street, need to get pushed out of a car’s way by his friend, and then completely abandon that friend to his fate?”  
“Beats me” Marty replied. “Although I can’t imagine being friends with a guy like that.”  
Lorraine nodded in agreement. “Anyway,” she said, “Marty did have quite a shock, and with him having essentially no family anymore, we do have a responsibility towards him.”  
“That’s a very good point, Lorraine” Mrs. Baines said. “Marty, Sam hit you, so we should take care of you.”  
Lorraine nodded. “And he can sleep in my room” she added, before putting her hand on Marty’s thigh and squeezing it.  
Marty barely suppressed a yelp of surprise, then gave Lorraine a look. In return, he got a flirtatious smile. The teen forced himself to ignore her and turned to her mother instead. “I suppose I could” he said.  
“Good to hear that” Lorraine’s mother said. “I suppose we’ll have to let you sleep in Lorraine’s room – it’s not like there is place anywhere else. Thanks for volunteering, Lorraine.”  
“That’s all right” Lorraine said, casually. “I’m sure Marty and I will be able to get along.”  
Marty shot her another look, then nodded his – reluctant – consent.


	7. Finding Marty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jennifer tries to find Marty, and has success. Yay for that! Unfortunately for her, we know what has been going on in Marty's life, and thus that the meeting (which doesn't actually happen until the next chapter) won't be as happy as she hopes.

**7: Chapter Seven**

November 7, 1955  
06:30 AM PST  
Hill Valley, California

Jennifer felt like she was out of her mind. It was just half past seven, everyone was asleep, and here she was, going out into a 1955 world to find her boyfriend. Of whom she had absolutely no way of knowing where he was.   
Of course, she had her reasons. The past day had been horrible – not that Doc Brown had mistreated her, but her own constant worrying about Marty was driving her insane. She just had to know where he was. It was so unlike him to stay away for two whole days, especially now that they were in such a strange place. Somebody should have seen him. Especially George, Marty’s father. After all, that was who Marty had been chasing after the last time she saw him.   
And George was the person she was looking for now, after sneaking out early without Doc’s consent – he had refused to go along with the scheme. Jennifer hadn’t had a clue where George lived, but thankfully, there was a phone booth near Lou’s Café in which she could look him up. Jennifer wished she and Marty had found that booth last Saturday already – at least then, Marty wouldn’t have pursued George and he wouldn’t have disappeared.   
Well, it was no use thinking about that now, Jennifer figured. She had found the phone book and that was all what mattered. And after looking George up, she was finally able to walk into one clear direction.   
Once she got to the McFly house, however, hesitation crept up to her again. What was she doing here? Should she be here at all? The McFlys were surely going to be angry with her if she came up to their house at this time in the morning. Jennifer didn’t really know her boyfriend’s grandparents, but she could make a guess about their behavior when a strange girl showed up at this time of day – although Marty’s grandpa probably was a lot like his son.   
Jennifer sighed. She did feel bad for Marty, having a father like George McFly. She remembered the conversation they had had, back in 1985, about George and about Marty possibly ending up just like him. When she had told her boyfriend that his father wasn’t that bad, Jennifer had to confess that she’d not been entirely straight-forward. George McFly was a guy that could drive you angry sometimes, especially if you were his son. George simply couldn’t stand up to anybody. And from what little she had seen of him yesterday, Jennifer could hazard a guess he was the same in 1955.   
She noticed that as she had been thinking, she had arrived at the place she should be: the McFly house. Jennifer looked at it for a moment, comparing it to her own house and with the house the McFly family of the future lived in. Then, as she realized this comparison was a mere excuse for her to drag her feet, she took a deep breath, and walked up to the door.   
“Come on, Jen” she muttered to herself. “Be brave for once. This is for Marty, after all. Back in the fifties, people probably didn’t sleep in that late. And it’s Monday.” Determined, she rang the door bell.   
It took a minute and several rings of the bell before anyone appeared, and by then, Jennifer had just about given up hope, with only her wish to find George making her last up to that moment. A man opened the door, and Jennifer immediately saw the resemblance with Marty’s father in the future. Sure, this man dressed and looked slightly different, but the overall alikeness was stunning. This had to be Marty’s grandfather.   
“Good morning, sir” Jennifer said. “I’m sorry I had to disturb you this early in the morning, but I’m looking for your son, George McFly. Is he awake?”   
“He should be” the man – Mr. McFly – replied. “Sylvia went off to wake him up just a few minutes ago. Are you a friend of his?”   
“Not really” Jennifer said. “I think he might have seen a friend of mine. He disappeared.”   
“That’s horrible news” Mr. McFly muttered, aghast. “Shouldn’t you call the police then?”   
“Perhaps” Jennifer replied. “But I want to try to find him by myself first.”   
“Sure” Mr. McFly said, his voice carrying the same kind of resignation his son’s would have had in the future. “I’ll call him for you. George?”   
It took a moment before the answer came. “Yeah?”   
“There’s a girl here who wants to see you.”   
“A girl?” George’s voice sounded nervous. “What does she want?”   
“She’s looking for a friend of hers. Says you might have seen him.”   
There was a pause. “I’m not sure what that’s all about…”   
“Neither am I, but the girl does want to speak to you.”   
“Give me a minute.”   
Mr. McFly turned to Jennifer. “Well, you heard him” he said. “He probably needs to change.”   
“I suppose” Jennifer replied. “I’ll wait a while.”   
It took up to three minutes before George McFly came down the stairs and to the door. “Hi” he said, shyly.   
“Hi” Jennifer replied. “I’m looking for a friend of mine. Do you remember us? We were at the café last Saturday.”   
George thought hard. “Wait, you’re that girl!” he said. “The one with the boy with the life preserver. When Biff was bullying me.”   
“That’s right” Jennifer replied, pleased. “We, uh, split up, and he went after you. I haven’t seen him since, and I thought you might know where he went.”   
“He went after me?” George asked. “On purpose? What would he do that for?”   
Jennifer hesitated for a moment – she obviously couldn’t tell him the real reason. “He’s interested in helping victims of bullying” she fibbed. “Did you see him?”   
“Sure” George replied. “That morning, I went over to a tree, to, uh, watch birds… and when I was up in the tree, I fell out and a car was racing towards me. Then your friend ran up to me and pushed me out of the way – and he got hit instead. The man who was in the car probably took him into his house – I’m not sure about that, because I got away as fast as I could.”   
“Interesting” Jennifer said. It did make some sense. If George had been in danger of getting hurt, she knew Marty would intervene to save his Dad. She just hoped he wasn’t hurt badly… well, there was only one way to find out about that. “Do you know what house that was? The people who lived there, I mean?”   
“Certainly” George replied. “That was Lorraine Baines’ house.”   
Jennifer gasped. “Lorraine Baines?” she repeated. That was Marty’s mother! She wondered what effects Marty’s interference with that incident could have had. If he had pushed George out of the way of the Baines family car…   
She suddenly frowned. She knew that story. Marty had told her that his mother was always going on about it. How she and George had first met when George had been hit by her father’s car, and how she’d taken him into the house and had fallen in love with him. And how without it, their kids would have never been born.   
Never been born…   
Jennifer gasped. If Marty had prevented his parents from getting together, it was even more important that she would act now. She needed to do something about this, and soon!   
“Thanks, George” she said. “That means a lot to me. Even if I don’t find him – thank you for helping.”   
“You’re welcome” George said, smiling slightly. Jennifer smiled back and walked away from the McFly house. 

oooooooo

Back on the doorsteps leading into the Brown mansion, Jennifer carefully opened the front door. Fortunately, it still hadn’t occurred to Doc to lock it at night, so she was able to creep in easily. She shut it, and carefully walked towards the stairs that led to her bedroom…   
“Jennifer!”   
Jennifer froze, and turned around to see Doc staring at her, angry. “Did you really think I slept in late enough not to notice this?”   
The seventeen-year-old winced. “I could have tried” she muttered, softly.   
Doc let out a sigh, less of anger but more of disappointment. “Didn’t I tell you not to go outside? The consequences could be disastrous! I suppose that it _is_ silly to have a time machine and stay inside all the time in a different era, but that’s something you’ll have to discuss with my future self, whom I suspect would know the pros and cons much better. You’re under my care now, and I know little of the subject, so I’m being as careful as I can. And I do know it is dangerous to go out, Jennifer. You might alter history!”   
“But history _has_ already been altered!” Jennifer replied.   
Doc frowned. “What do you mean?”   
“I went to the McFly house this morning” Jennifer explained. “George, Marty’s father, had been the last person I saw with Marty before he disappeared, and he told me that Marty had pushed him out of the way when he was knocked out by a car.”   
“So?” Doc replied.   
“That was the way Marty’s parents were supposed to meet” Jennifer said. “George, Marty’s Dad, was supposed to get hit by the car of the father of Lorraine – Marty’s mom. Now, Marty took George’s place, and Marty’s mom won’t fall in love with him.”   
Doc gasped. “Jennifer, have you got that photograph of Marty’s family around somewhere?”   
“Sure” Jennifer said, confused. She took it out of her pocket and handed it over. “What about it?”   
Doc pointed at the picture, and Jennifer could see Marty’s brother, Dave, was half gone. “It looks like he’s being erased” she whispered.   
“Erased from existence” Doc replied. “You’re right, kid. We have to get your Marty out of this predicament. If he is the one to cause his parents never to meet, we could have a paradox on our hands.”   
“What’s that?” Jennifer asked.   
“I’ll tell you later” Doc said. “First, I’ve got a question. What did you intend to do about this?”   
“Find Marty” Jennifer said, immediately. “If he’s still at his mom’s house, then I can talk to her, too. Perhaps I can convince her to date George, and then Marty can ask George the same thing about Lorraine. And perhaps, we can solve this whole issue in one day.”   
“That would be wishful thinking, but I hope it will be true” Doc replied. “All right, that’s a good idea. This afternoon, after school, Lorraine and George should both be home. You should go up to the Baines house then, and do what you planned to do.”   
“Good” Jennifer said, smiling.   
“And until then, you’d better take some rest” Doc said. “You did wake up early today, after all.”   
Jennifer nodded, and smiled at her best friend’s mentor. She then walked back to her comfortable bed. 

oooooooo

As Jennifer walked up to the Baines house that afternoon, she felt much better than she had that morning. Now, it was afternoon, and she knew that she was probably going to see her boyfriend again – well, unless Marty had found another place to move to, but she doubted that, especially if he had been hit by a car. Jennifer winced, thinking of that. She just hoped Marty was all right.   
A few moments after she had rung the door bell, an older woman appeared. “Good afternoon” she said. “What can I do for you?”   
“I am looking for a boy” Jennifer said. She knew she was being vague, but for all she knew, Marty hadn’t told them his real name. “Your… husband, I suppose… hit him last Saturday. With his car. He’s a friend of mine.”   
The woman’s face brightened. “Marty will be delighted to hear that” she replied. “He isn’t here at the moment – he and Lorraine are taking a stroll through Hill Valley Park. You can wait here, if you like.”   
“No, that’s fine” Jennifer said. “I’ll go look for them. Thank you, Mrs. Baines.”   
“You’re welcome” the woman replied. She closed the door, and Jennifer smiled. From what Marty’s grandmother had said, Marty would be very happy to see her again. She wondered why he hadn’t come looking for her, and what he was doing at a walk with Lorraine, but then she shrugged it off. After all, Doc hadn’t told Marty about the whole ‘not altering history’ thing. And even if he had, Marty could be stubborn sometimes.   
Whistling a tune, Jennifer set off towards Hill Valley Park. Little did she know that what she would encounter there would be worse than what she could ever have expected.


	8. The Confrontation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy, where to begin? This chapter is going to be quite harsh, as the Chapter Title indicates. I even slightly reduced my own tendency to avoid heavy language for emphasis. It's also a bit cliché, but the scene has a precedent in Part III with Doc and Clara's break-up, which actually shares a few similarities to this scene... but is of course different in many other ways, which I hope you'll uncover soon. Please read and also review.  
> And PS: The town of Elmdale is a reference to an earlier draft script for Back to the Future I, where that took the place of Hill Valley. In this universe, it's a Californian town near Hill Valley.

**8: Chapter Eight**

November 7, 1955  
12:10 PM PST  
Hill Valley, California

Leaning back in his seat, Marty figured life wasn’t that bad after all the way it was going here and now. He was at the Hill Valley High School, where he and Lorraine had been hoping to jog his memory. Right now, however, he didn’t see anyone familiar. Of course, by this point, Marty thought that the entire school might have been his family and he still wouldn’t recognize them.  
Sighing, he looked over at Lorraine. While the oldest Baines child was truly concerned with finding his family, something the rest of her family wasn’t, she fortunately wasn’t losing any sleep over it. She was chatting with some of her friends, and held out her hand in a waving gesture when she noticed he was looking at her. Marty waved back, and was about to turn back to the plate of food he’d collected, not wanting to disturb Lorraine while she was with female friends and having a break from caring for him for a while, when he noticed a tall young man approach her.  
“Well, lookee what we have here” the young man said. “Lorraine Baines. How are you doing, sweetheart?”  
“I’m not your ‘sweetheart’, Biff” Lorraine replied. An undertone of anger was obvious in her voice.  
“That again?” Biff said, chuckling. “You’ll change your mind. Come on, let’s have a nice time.”  
“I’d rather not” Lorraine hissed. “Get out of here.”  
“Come on, come on” Biff insisted.  
“Leave me alone” Lorraine replied.  
“You want it, you know you want it, and you know you want me to give it to you” Biff said. By now, it had become obvious to Marty just what he wanted from her. He stood up and walked over angrily.  
“Shut your filthy…” Lorraine began, before noticing Marty. She immediately smiled. “Marty, how good to see you. This _bully_ just won’t leave me alone.”  
Marty glared at Biff, who laughed. “You think you can defeat me?” he said. “Scram, butthead.”  
“No way” Marty hissed. “You leave Lorraine alone.” He winced, suddenly noticing how big Biff was. Trying to get some courage, he added: “Now.”  
Biff glared at him. “So what’s it to you, butthead?” he said, pushing Marty back. “You know, you’ve been looking for a…” As he spoke, he grabbed Marty’s shoulder, upon which the teen assumed a defensive position. They were about to start fighting when Biff noticed a stern-looking older gentleman staring in their direction. He immediately loosened his grip on Marty.  
“Since you’re new here,” he said, “I’m going to cut you a break. Today. So why don’t you make like a tree… and get out of here.”  
Biff walked off. Marty stared after him, then sighed and turned back to Lorraine, who smiled broadly.  
“Marty, that was great” she gushed. “You’re such a hero.”  
Marty blushed. “It wasn’t that much” he said, shyly. “I had to do something. So, these girls are your friends?”  
“That’s right” Lorraine replied. “This is Babs, and that’s Betty. Girls, this is the boy I was talking about… Marty McFly.”  
“Nice to meet you, Marty” Babs said, shaking his hand. “I heard from Lorraine you were hit by her father’s car, and you got amnesia.”  
“That’s right” Marty whispered, sighing. Louder, he added: “I just wish I knew who I was. This is so frustrating.” He smiled at Lorraine. “Well, at least I’ve got some support.”  
“Good to hear” Betty said, before she reached out to shake his hand as well.  
Marty was about to say something more, when the school bell rang. Lorraine and her friends got up from the table. “We’ve got to go” Lorraine said, quite unnecessarily. “See you after school, Marty.”  
“Oh, you bet” Marty said, giving Lorraine a friendly pat on her shoulder. Lorraine smiled at him, and ran along with her girl friends, back to class. 

oooooooo

Marty smiled, as he listened to the birds chirping around them. He and Lorraine were walking through the local park, an idea of Lorraine’s which might, as she put it, just possibly improve his memory. Marty suspected that the real reason was that she simply wanted to spend time alone with him.  
Ever since the decision had been made last night that he and Lorraine would be sharing a room, Marty had noticed Lorraine’s attentions to him growing stronger. When they went to their beds (which were after all in the same room), she had been staring at him to an extent that made him nervous, and the next morning, she’d paid a lot of attention to him too. Marty grinned. He supposed he couldn’t really get mad at her for that. In fact, he was kind of flattered she liked him so much – and he had to admit that he had taken a shine to her, too.  
Anyway, the events of that morning had not yielded much in terms of results. He still had no clue of who he was, and what was worse, he was getting more used to it. He still hated the thought that it might take years before his memory returned, if it returned at all, but the thought that it was inevitable was beginning to sink in. Marty sighed.  
“Isn’t nature just beautiful at this time of year?” Lorraine then gushed. “Those coloring leaves… the occasional sunshine… it just makes me smile.”  
“Yeah, same here” Marty replied, trying to shake away his negative thoughts about his heritage for a moment. “Hill Valley really seems to be a nice little town. When did you move here again?”  
“1946” Lorraine said. “That would be nine years ago. I was just a little girl then, but I can remember it well. We originally lived in Elmdale, but Dad could find work here. We’ve lived in the same house ever since.”  
Marty nodded. “So, do you like it here?”  
“Mostly, yeah” Lorraine replied, sighing. “Sometimes, I do get annoyed, though. That’s not at the town, but at my parents. I get the feeling they really don’t understand kids our age. Dad’s the stricter one, but I have my fair share of arguments with Mom, too.”  
“That’s too bad” Marty replied, squeezing her hand gently. “I wish I could say the same thing about my parents, though. That would mean I’d know them.”  
“I understand” Lorraine said. “I’m sorry to burden you with my problems – I know they’re trivial compared to yours.” She sighed, as Marty did the same. Changing the subject, she added: “How about we sit there for a while? On that park bench?”  
“Fine with me” Marty responded. He and Lorraine headed over, and they sat down next to each other on the bench. “I wonder where I’m from” he then added. “If you don’t know me, and your friends didn’t either, I’m probably not from Hill Valley.”  
“Well, we don’t really know everybody in town” Lorraine said. “We could investigate some more next week. And if we can’t find anyone, I suppose you’ll have to stay with us.”  
“Do you think your parents will agree to that?” Marty asked. “After all, taking someone into your house permanently isn’t a decision made overnight.”  
“I don’t think they have any choice” Lorraine said. “Besides that one note, your wallet was empty. You don’t have any money, you don’t have a home for all we know… Dad and Mom can’t kick you out. And if they do, I’ll tell them I’ll be leaving too.”  
Marty blushed. “That would be going a bit too far, Lorraine” he said. “Surely you wouldn’t leave your family because of someone you just met.”  
Lorraine shrugged. “Hey, I like you” she said. “And it’s a matter of principles, too. I really don’t want them to kick you out.”  
Marty blushed again, and turned his head away from her for a moment. Lorraine was being very kind to him, and they had rapidly developed a bond over the past day. He could relate far better to her than to any of the other members of the Baines family - which might have been natural, because they were the same age, but even so it was exceptional. What was more, he kept wanting to be around her, too. He knew why Lorraine wanted to be around him – she had a crush on him. And he was beginning to realize that, to some extent, he returned those feelings. Lorraine was relatively smart, astonishingly beautiful, funny and gentle. She had cared for him more than any of her siblings or her parents had. In a way, she was the perfect girl for him…  
“Marty!”  
Marty and Lorraine looked up to see an unfamiliar girl walking up to them, a broad smile on her face. She was roughly his height, and fairly good-looking – not quite like Lorraine, but she was very pretty nonetheless. “I’m so happy to see you!” the girl gushed. “How are you?”  
Marty and Lorraine exchanged a nervous glance. Marty turned to her. “I’m fine, miss…”  
“That’s great” the girl said. “Your, uh, uh, George told me you’d hit your head and that, uh, Lorraine’s family… had taken you in.”  
“That’s right” Lorraine confirmed. “Are you a friend of Marty's?”  
“I’m Jennifer Parker” the girl said. She turned to Marty, an expression of half-serious disapproval on her face. “Didn’t you mention me to her?”  
“I’m afraid not” Marty replied, sighing. “You see, I don’t know you. When Lorraine’s father’s car hit me, I lost my memory. I can’t remember anything.”  
Jennifer’s eyes widened. “That would explain a lot” she whispered under her breath. “Uh, can I speak to you in private for a moment?”  
Marty looked at Lorraine, who shrugged. “Sure” he finally said. “Behind that tree?”  
Jennifer nodded in agreement. Marty got up and turned to Lorraine. “I’ll be back soon” he told her.  
“That’s all right” Lorraine said. “You and miss Parker can talk. I’ll wait here.”  
Marty smiled at her and followed Jennifer to the tree. “So” he said. “What do you want to talk about?”  
Instead of a straight-forward answer, Marty got a question in response. “You really can’t remember anything?” Jennifer asked.  
“Uh, no” Marty replied. “I told you. Nothing before Saturday.”  
“Absolutely nothing?” Jennifer asked, with disbelief that was probably common for one who was told such shocking news. “Nothing about 1985?”  
“Nineteen eighty-what now?” Marty said.  
“You’re from the future” Jennifer began to explain. “So am I. We came here in a time machine Doc Brown invented. In 1985. I’m your girlfriend, you see – and something about the first time travel experiment went out of control, and we went back here. I lost touch with you on Saturday because you went to follow your Dad, George McFly. You then interfered with your parents’ first meeting since you pushed him out of the way of your grandfather’s car. You see, Lorraine is your mother and she was supposed to meet your Dad that way. Now, we have to get them back together so that you will exist and that we can head back to the future.” She looked at him, as Marty just remained silent. “Do you understand?”  
Marty nodded, slowly. “Yes” he replied. “I do.”  
“That’s great” Jennifer said, relieved. “Now we can-”  
Marty cut her off. “Now nothing, _miss_ Parker. I don’t know how much of an idiot you thought I was to fall for that, but you’re _wrong_!”  
“Marty!” Jennifer exclaimed. “Are you all right?”  
“NO!” Marty shouted. “I’m _not_ all right, I’ve got _amnesia_! And you’re trying to take _advantage_ of me because of that!” By now, his blood was near boiling and he glared into her eyes. “Did you really think you could fool me by that nonsense about me being your boyfriend, you, you… you _bitch_!”  
“Marty!” Jennifer said, shocked. “I can’t believe you’re using those words with me!”  
Marty glared at her, ignoring for the moment the fact that a shocked Lorraine, startled by his outburst, had joined them. He was seething with rage and that meant he had no interest in letting anything steer him from the course of getting even with Jennifer Parker. “Oh no?” he taunted. “I’ll tell you I’ve got plenty stronger words in mind to use but I won’t quite sink to your level.” He took a step towards her, glaring into her eyes ever more menacingly. “You were so wrong when you thought you could make up silly stories of me being a time traveler from thirty years into the future to fool me. As if I couldn’t see that your entire story was a collection of shameless _lies_ , so you nasty _stalker_ could have me as your boyfriend, because you didn’t like the fact that I was hanging out with Lorraine! Well, that’s _your_ problem then, because I’m never going to leave Lorraine for you! And you know why not? Because _I’M IN LOVE WITH HER!!!”_  
As he finished his tirade, Marty’s rage briefly lingered – and then it sunk as soon as it had risen when he realized just what he’d just said, and in front of whom he’d said it. He looked into the eyes of a shocked Lorraine for a moment, before blushing fiercely and running back to the Baines house. Lorraine looked after him for a few moments, shot an angry glare at Jennifer, and then she ran after him. “Marty! Wait!”  
With both of them gone, a crying Jennifer was left all alone.


	9. Friendly (And More Than Friendly) Reconciliation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Doc and Jennifer share some bonding over the 'Marty' issue, and Marty and Lorraine... make out. I could say that in another way, but that's basically it. Thus, warnings in advance, although I made sure it wouldn't get too far. I wouldn't be comfortable with posting such stuff, anyway. Also heavy language that is basically a repetition from that used on the previous chapter because I'm not good at cursing. Also, warning: I'm not too good at writing romance.

**9: Chapter Nine**

November 7, 1955  
04:45 PM PST  
Hill Valley, California

Doc Brown had anticipated a lot of moods from his new time travelling friend from the future when she returned to the mansion. She could still be worried where Marty was, frustrated that her search hadn’t worked, or happy that it had. She could be sad, confused, or annoyed. What he hadn’t expected, though, was a Jennifer who had simply shoved him aside when he’d opened the door for her, and had paced up the stairs to her room without saying a word. A few moments later, he heard her door slam firmly shut.   
For a moment, Doc wondered what to do. It was obvious that Jennifer’s mission had ended in total failure somehow, and that she wouldn’t want to talk about precisely what had happened. Yet, Doc knew that he couldn’t be satisfied with that answer. As a scientist, he should investigate Jennifer’s problems so that they could be solved and that the continuum could be pushed back on its proper course. And as a human, he should try to help her get out of this depression. Sighing, he climbed the stairs to Jennifer’s room, and knocked on the door.   
The reply that came could have been expected. “Go away.”   
Doc sighed. “No I won’t, kid” he said. “This is my house and I can come into a room in my house whenever I want. And ‘whenever I want’ is now.” With that, he opened the door and walked in.   
Jennifer was sitting on the bed, her face reddened with tears. While she was still talking with defiance, it seemed that her mood was more sad than anything else. Doc looked at her and didn’t say a word for the moment, instead just deciding to sit down next to her. Jennifer quietly sobbed for a minute before regaining control of her senses and stopping. She looked up at him.   
“What happened?” Doc asked.   
“Long story” Jennifer muttered.   
“You can tell me” Doc encouraged her. “Come on, kid… Jennifer. Whatever happened, I’m sure we can do something about it.”   
Jennifer shook her head, depressed. “We can’t” she insisted. “We can’t, and I don’t even think I want to. After what just happened… I don’t think I’d mind all that much if Marty got erased from existence.”   
Doc’s eyes widened. “Great Scott!” he exclaimed. “Why?”   
Jennifer sighed. “I’ll start at the beginning. I went to the Baines house to find Marty, but he wasn’t there. His grandmother told me he and Lorraine had gone out for a walk. I should’ve become suspicious at that point already, but unfortunately, I didn’t.”   
Doc frowned. “Go on” he said.   
“I caught up to Marty and his mom at Hill Valley Park” Jennifer said, whispering as she recalled the horrid moment. “I had a talk with them, and it soon turned out Marty didn’t remember who I was – apparently, getting hit by his grandpa’s car had given him amnesia.”   
Doc gasped. “That would explain why he didn’t look us up” he said. “I presume you explained the situation to him?”   
“Yes, I did – or at least, I tried” Jennifer said. “But when I had told him all he needed to know – that he was from the future, that the girl he was with was his mom, and that he needed to help me get his parents back together – then he didn’t believe me! He accused me of being a liar, a stalker! What was worse, he said that he didn’t love me, and that he was in love with Lorraine!”   
“You mean, he was amorously infatuated with his mother?” Doc asked, stunned.   
“If you mean he had the hots for her, yeah!” Jennifer exclaimed. “Apparently, he hadn’t yet told her that, and he hadn’t meant to say it, so he stormed off embarrassed. Lorraine followed him, and that was the last I saw of them.” She sighed, tears coming to her eyes once more. “I can’t believe it! Marty dumped me! He dumped me, for his own mother! Am I that bad, that hideous, that he’d leave me for his mom?”   
Doc gently but awkwardly put an arm around Jennifer’s shoulders. She frowned, but didn’t push him away. Encouraged, he smiled kindly at her. “Ssh” he told her. “Don’t cry. Everything is going to be all right.”   
Jennifer looked at him and frowned. “How?” she asked.   
“First, you should try to relax” Doc said. “Just stay here and attempt to forget it all – I’ll call you when dinner’s ready. But after that, I would suggest that you approach the problem from the other side.”   
“What do you mean?” Jennifer asked.   
“You can’t abandon Marty” Doc replied. “Even if you truly wanted to let your boyfriend be erased – which I highly doubt – it’s too dangerous to the space-time continuum. If he didn’t exist, he would have caused it himself, which is a paradox – a logical contradiction. After all, how could he erase himself, if he didn’t exist? Such an impossibility would be too hard for the universe to deal with, and I’m not sure yet what could happen, but it wouldn’t be pretty.”   
“Um, okay” Jennifer said. “Then what should I do?”   
“Go to Marty’s father” Doc said. “If not now, then tomorrow. Ask him what he thinks about miss Baines, and persuade him to get together with her.”   
“That could work” Jennifer pondered. “From what I’ve seen, he’s a bit shy, though – exactly the way he still is in the future.”   
“I’m sure you’ll get around that issue” Doc said. “It won’t be a walk in the park, but if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.”   
Jennifer smiled faintly. “That’s what you’ve always told us” she said.   
“It is?” Doc said. “Oh yes, that’s right – you told me that earlier. But anyway, don’t worry. It will work out, I’m sure.” He patted her on the back.   
“Thanks, Dr. Brown – Doc” Jennifer said. “You know, I’m not all that close to you in the future, but I can see why Marty likes you. You’re a bit of a father figure to him.”   
“Well, that’s something I wouldn’t have expected” Doc said. He then – cautiously – reached out to embrace Jennifer, who after some hesitance returned the gesture. “I’m not sure how my future self ended up in that role for your boyfriend, Jennifer – but I think I like it.”   
“Yeah, you’re pretty good at it” Jennifer said, thinking of her own father. She knew he loved her, but some of the times, she did wish she had a mentor and alternative father figure like Marty did. Perhaps this week, she would have one. She smiled at Doc, who had released her and had gotten up to leave the room. “Bye.”   
“Bye, Jennifer” Doc said. He left the room, pleased that Jennifer was finally all right again. Now they just had to solve the ‘Marty’ issue. 

oooooooo

Filled with a mix of emotions he could barely begin to describe, Marty entered the Baines household, ignored Lorraine’s parents, and stormed up to Lorraine’s room. After shutting the door behind him, he went over to his bed and sat down, depressed.   
He didn’t even know what he felt more: anger at that Jennifer girl, embarrassment for Lorraine, depression because their friendship was now probably over… sure, Lorraine had liked him, but him saying openly that he _loved_ her one day after they met was one clear road to nowhere for their relationship. Lorraine would be shocked, shocked enough to draw back from him, perhaps not hate him or ignore him, but simply treat him as a guest, like the others – and maybe that would be even worse.   
Dark thoughts were busy filling his brain when he suddenly heard a knock on the door. “Marty?” Lorraine’s soft voice came. “Are you in there?”   
He didn’t respond. “Marty?” Lorraine repeated, more anxious. “Are you going to let me in?”   
After another second’s pause, Marty heard the door open. It wasn’t locked – though Lorraine’s bedroom did have a lock, Marty hadn’t felt the compulsion to use it. It was her room, so he didn’t have the right to stop her from entering. Lorraine walked into the room and sat down on her own bed, her brown eyes staring intently at him.   
“Marty…” she began.   
Marty cut her off. “I’m sorry” he whispered.   
“What?” Lorraine asked.   
“I’m sorry” Marty repeated, forcing himself to look into her (beautiful) eyes. “I shouldn’t have said that, it was just that I was getting so mad at that girl and it just…” He sighed. “Are you angry with me?”   
Instead of giving an immediate answer, Lorraine gave him a curious glance. “Marty, when you said you were in love with me… were you serious? Do you really… love me?”   
Marty blushed fiercely, but nodded. “Yeah” he whispered, almost too soft to hear.   
Lorraine rose from her bed and sat down next to him, putting her hand on his shoulder. “Well, I suppose this was a good thing then” she said. “Who knows how long we could have gone on without being honest with each other.”   
Marty frowned. “You don’t mean?”   
“I love you, Marty” Lorraine said. She looked at him, and Marty could see she was genuine. “I had a crush on you from the moment I first saw you and over the days… day, perhaps… I fell in love with you.” She took his hand and squeezed it. “Marty, I know this might be a little forward, but since you were the one to breach the subject, would you… would you like me to be your girlfriend?”   
Marty stared at her for a moment or two. Then he nodded enthusiastically. “I would” he replied. “This is great, Lorraine. Thank you. I…” He smiled. “You know, when I found out I lost my memory, I thought I lost everything. I don’t know what my life was like before, but now I know it couldn’t have been better than being with you.”   
Lorraine blushed, fiercely. She turned to Marty and put both her arms around his shoulders. Marty scooted closer to her and returned the gesture. It felt so comfortable, so at ease, to feel Lorraine’s arms around him. Almost automatically, their heads moved closer to each other. Lorraine looked at Marty, and he could guess what she was thinking. “Should we…”   
Marty smiled, and nodded. Lorraine smirked in return, and pulled him closer. She put her mouth against his and they kissed, kissed for the first time. Marty felt on top of the world as he opened his mouth slightly, letting her tongue enter and start teasing games with Marty’s own tongue. Their kiss was wonderful, it was great, it was passionate, it was…   
…wrong.   
They felt it at the same moment, and instantly broke away from shock. Marty and Lorraine stared at each other, frozen in horror. There had been something about their kiss, something off and not quite right. As if they shouldn’t be doing it.   
“This is all wrong” Lorraine muttered. “I don’t know what it is, but when I kiss you, it’s like… I’m kissing… my brother.” She smiled sheepishly. “I guess that doesn’t make any sense, does it?”   
“Not really” Marty said. “I understand what you feel, though.” He frowned. “It’s wrong, and yet it’s like… well…” He frowned. “This is heavy.”   
“What do you mean by that?” Lorraine asked, puzzled.   
Marty stared at her for a moment, and then shrugged. “Just… you know. Heavy. Weird.” He shook his head. “Never mind, let’s concentrate on the kissing. I…” He stared at Lorraine’s beautiful face. He still liked her the same way, and everything about her made him want to kiss her again… everything but the thought of experiencing that strange sensation again. But why did that sensation exist? “I can’t explain it” he groaned.   
“Neither can I” Lorraine muttered. “I love you, but… this just makes me feel that… I shouldn’t.”   
“But why?” Marty said, almost defensive. “What could be wrong about us falling in love? Now if we were having sex and it felt wrong,” Lorraine blushed fiercely at the thought, “I could understand that we’d think it was wrong to do that, when we’re just dating and still living with our, er, _your_ parents and not married and all that… but it’s just a simple kiss! _One_ innocent, harmless kiss! And why would it feel like kissing a relative? Unless...”   
The moment he understood it, his anger enflamed again. “That bitch” he muttered. “That ignorant, heartless bitch!”   
“Who?” Lorraine asked.   
“That Parker girl!” Marty exclaimed. “You heard what she was talking about, didn’t you? About how I was from the future and you were…”   
“…I was your mom” Lorraine finished. “Do you think we’re feeling this way because she suggested we were related? And then the thought got into the back of our minds and spoiled the kiss?”   
“I’m not sure, but I’d give it a good chance” Marty grumbled. He looked back at her. “We can’t let her disturb our relationship, Lorraine. That’s like letting her win. And I don’t want us to break up… I love you.”   
“I love you too” Lorraine agreed. “But what _can_ we do against it?”   
Marty looked at her mischievously. “Exactly what she wouldn’t want us to do” he said, pulling her close and kissing her. He thrust his tongue deep into Lorraine’s mouth, igniting a reaction of surprise and, partly, of delight. The feeling of wrongness returned, but this time, Marty ignored it. After a few moments of kissing, the bad feeling faded to the background and Lorraine, though uneasy at first, regained her feelings for him and embraced him tight. They continued kissing passionately, clinging onto each other in a tight embrace. Marty shut his eyes. Everything was all right with the world.   
As he continued embracing Lorraine, Marty noticed something odd – her skirt was lifting up. He let go of her with his left hand and moved it down to the skirt’s edge, toying with it before reaching underneath and moving his hand along her back. The moment he touched the lacing of her bra both Lorraine and Marty blushed. Marty smiled nervously at her and tried to judge his new girlfriend’s reaction. Should he dare to unclasp it? On one hand, they’d just met, they still lived with Lorraine’s parents… it probably wasn’t a good idea. He sure was tempted, though…   
“Lorraine?”   
The sound of Lorraine’s mother’s voice came to the two of them as a lightning bolt at a clear sky. Lorraine and Marty jumped, startled, and quickly broke the kiss. Lorraine rushed off to the stairs. “What’s the matter, mother?”   
“Dinner’s ready” Mrs. Baines announced. “Can you and Marty come down?”   
Lorraine nodded. “We’ll be there in a minute” she replied. There was a silence, and Marty presumed Mrs. Baines had walked off. He was proven right when Lorraine re-appeared in the room a moment later.  
“Dinner’s ready” she said, softly.   
“So I heard” Marty replied. He looked at her. “Lorraine, about what just happened… with your…”   
Lorraine placed a finger on Marty’s mouth. “It’s all right” she said. “Let’s just forget it for now. We could always… discuss… the matter again later.”   
Marty smirked at what was more or less an invitation (albeit one for the distant future) and nodded. He gave Lorraine a brief kiss before she took his hand and they walked down the stairs together, back to the rest of the family.


	10. Asking Lorraine Out

**10: Chapter Ten**

November 8, 1955  
03:00 AM PST  
Hill Valley, California

Jennifer felt awkward when she crept into George McFly’s bedroom and put Marty’s headphones over his ears. Here she was, thirty years before her own time, getting into a boy’s room to convince him to take a girl out to the dance… by telling him she was an alien from outer space. It was just too bizarre to contemplate.  
And yet, it was the only option. Last night, she had called George several times and had finally gone over to see him in person. However, the message had been clear: George was flattered that Jennifer paid attention to him, but he had no interests in taking Lorraine out on Saturday. He was just too shy, _and_ he needed to watch Science Fiction Theater.  
It had been Doc who gave her the inspiration for this plan by telling her how ‘otherworldly’ the whole time machine was, but _she_ had been the one to put two and two together and connect it with the love of science fiction George had expressed. It had been a complicated plan, and right now she was just about falling over with sleep. But it had to be done. Sighing, Jennifer looked over the entire installation she’d set up one more time, and then activated the cassette recorder.  
Loud music blared into George’s ears and he sat upright, horrified. His eyes fell on Jennifer, who desperately hoped he wouldn’t see through her disguise. Her – or rather, Marty’s – radiation suit did make her look like an alien, but a clever person would probably have his doubts.  
Fortunately, though, George did not appear to have any doubts at all – although that might be more the sheer terror he was feeling than lack of intelligence. He was gasping at the sight of her, clearly frightened. Jennifer took a deep breath before speaking in a low, semi-masculine voice. “My name is Darth Vader. I’m an extra-terrestrial from the planet Vulcan.”  
As George looked at the magazine next to him, Jennifer couldn’t help a little smile. Perhaps this would go easier than she thought. 

oooooooo

“Jennifer! JENNIFER!”  
Jennifer looked up at the sight of a bewildered George McFly running towards her. “George!” she said. “What’s the matter, you look like you’ve seen a ghost!”  
“Well, you’re not terribly far off” George muttered. “I was visited by Darth Vader from planet Vulcan last night. He told me that if I didn’t take Lorraine out, he’d disintegrate me.”  
“Don’t worry about that, George” Jennifer said, wondering whether to cast fake doubts on his story to sound more convincing herself, but deciding against it – with George McFly, one could never risk things. “I’ll help you. Lorraine is over there, in the café.”  
George looked at the building, nervously. “Are you sure?”  
“She should be, I saw her go in” Jennifer replied. She squinted at the café and tried to look through the windows. There was Lorraine, sitting with her friends… and at the bar was Marty, sipping some drink. _Great._  
They walked over, but George remained extremely nervous. “What should I say to her?” he asked. “I mean, I’ve never really interacted with a girl before!”  
“Well, you’re talking to me now, aren’t you?” Jennifer asked, smiling at him. “No, I get what you mean. You should just say that destiny brought you together, that she’s a beautiful girl… and ask her if she has got a date for the dance yet. If she hasn’t, you can ask her out.”  
George frowned, as he was rapidly writing down the lines Jennifer gave him on a notepad. “That makes it sound way too easy. I’m not sure if I can do that.”  
“Remember Darth Vader, George” Jennifer said. George winced, but nodded. He took a deep breath, and opened the doors of the café. After giving him a push to prevent him from standing on the doorstep forever, Jennifer thus had George safely inside.  
Now all she had to do was distract Marty, who was casting suspicious looks at the two of them. She gestured for George to walk up to Lorraine, and took a position at the bar next to Marty. She’d presumed he would ignore George if she was right there, and she had been right. Marty moved his bar stool away from her, but didn’t take his eyes off her. George was safe for now.  
She sighed. Everything was going relatively well, so far, but she hated the looks her ex-boyfriend was casting at her. She knew he didn’t believe they were dating, but even despite that, it hurt. And it made her head spin with questions and annoying what-if scenarios. What if she hadn’t let him go off on Saturday? Then he wouldn’t have lost his memory and he’d have never fallen in love with Lorraine. Well, sure, he could have encountered her on the street one day during their stay, but he’d never have fallen for her if he had known who she was. Right? Jennifer nodded to herself, trying to convince herself of that one thing, because if it was right, it meant that once she convinced him she was from the future, she would have him back.  
Jennifer shuddered, remembering the nightmare she had last night. She had finally convinced Marty that he was from the future, but he had slapped her anyway and told her that he was with Lorraine now, never mind the fact that she was his mom, and he didn’t care about her anymore. She knew that was just silly, but the thought lingered in her brain and she couldn’t shake it off.  
She turned to Marty, who was still staring at her. With her right eye, she could just catch sight of George reaching Lorraine’s table. Her heart fluttered. This was the moment. She had to distract Marty decisively, or he might ruin their entire plan.  
“Hi, Marty” she said, softly.  
Marty blinked, and frowned. “What do you want?” he asked.  
Jennifer smiled. “Nothing. I was just saying ‘hi’ to you. What’s wrong with that?”  
“Nothing, if I didn’t know why you did that” Marty replied. “Miss Parker, or whatever your real name is, I’m not sure why it won’t get through your thick skull, but I’m _taken_. I love Lorraine and she loves me, so if you want a boyfriend, why don’t you go look for that George McFly you were talking about. Surely he’d be willing to date you.”  
Jennifer frowned briefly at Marty’s line about Lorraine loving him, but her frown changed into a scowl when he finished. She so wished to get the truth through _his_ thick skull, but she knew she couldn’t get that wish. Not when he wouldn’t listen. She sighed, and leaned back, hoping George would be finished with asking Lorraine out soon. Otherwise, this wasn’t going to be pretty. 

oooooooo

George McFly felt his heart beating in his chest much louder than usual as he approached Lorraine Baines’ table. He was about to approach a girl, a girl he’d had a crush on for several years. Of course, during most of those years, he had never even considered approaching her for a date. Lorraine was far above him, and her incredible beauty made George feel that she belonged to the best guy Hill Valley could offer her – which was not him. And of course, he’d been way too shy to ask her anything anyway. He wasn’t sure whether before last night, he could have managed to raise his voice above a whisper when getting in her presence.  
However, the appearance of Jennifer Parker, and the ensuing alien, had changed all that. He needed to go out with Lorraine if he wanted to survive. He could not fail in his mission. That thought was the only thing keeping him steady as he arrived at the table Lorraine was at.  
“Lorraine” he whispered, trying to concentrate on the alien’s threat and how much he really wanted this deep down. “My density… has popped me to you.”  
Lorraine looked up, and frowned. “What?”  
George felt his cheeks color red with embarrassment. Why did he have to mess up at this critical moment? “Um,” he said, “what I meant to say was…”  
“Wait a minute” Lorraine said, smiling faintly. “Don’t I know you from somewhere?”  
“Yes!” George exclaimed, enthusiastic. “Yes, I’m George. George McFly. And I’m your density.” He winced and looked at his notepad. “I mean… your destiny.”  
Lorraine frowned. “So, you’re George McFly” she said. “Did Jennifer ask you to do this?”  
George felt horribly confused, taking a step back. “W-what?” he asked.  
Lorraine sighed. “Listen, George, you appear to be a nice guy” she said. “I’m not sure what Jennifer Parker has told you about me, but I’m already dating Marty. You’re just a ploy in her game to break up Marty and me anyway.” She sighed. “Was Jennifer right when she said that _you_ were the guy whose life Marty saved on Saturday, when you didn’t do a thing to help him out afterwards?”  
George shuddered, wishing to be anywhere but here. This was a rejection if he’d ever heard one. “Uh, yeah” he whispered, nearly inaudible.  
“Marty and I are willing to forgive you for that” Lorraine said, staring straight at him with a look in her eyes that made him shiver. “But in return, I’d like to ask you a favor – _leave us alone._ I’d hate for you to get involved in what is going on between Jennifer and us.”  
George nodded, reduced to his former shy self. “Anything you say, miss Baines” he whispered.  
“Good” Lorraine said, her kind smile returning to her face. “Now…”  
She’d barely began her sentence when the door opened all of a sudden and the music stopped. George looked up and winced. Just a moment ago, he had thought things couldn’t get any worse. This seemed to be the universe’s proof to him that it could. He sighed, and looked into the face of Biff Tannen. 

oooooooo 

Jennifer groaned audibly. Just when she thought things couldn’t get any worse, Biff showed up to prove her they could. She sighed, and watched as he stared at George. From the corner of her eye, she saw Marty was also noticing Biff and George, the latter standing by Lorraine’s table. Realizing what she had been up to, he sent an angry look in her direction, but didn’t say anything.  
“I thought I told you not to come in here again” Biff spoke up. “Well, it’s going to cost you. How much money have you got on you?”  
George winced. “Well,” he whispered, “how much do you want, Biff.”  
In response, Biff started walking over. Jennifer felt horrified. No one, absolutely no one, was doing anything about this. Was Marty’s father really going to get robbed because of her stupidity?  
Just as she was thinking that, Biff suddenly tripped and fell. Jennifer blinked and looked to her side to see that Marty had stuck out his leg. Biff, who stumbled up, soon noticed as well. “You again!” he exclaimed.  
“Whoa, whoa, Biff,” Marty replied, “What’s that?”  
Biff fell for it hook, line and sinker. He turned the other way, giving Marty just enough time to reach out and punch him. He then jumped up, shoved the gang members out of his way, and made it out of the café. Jennifer looked after him, a smile on her face. Granted, Marty might not like George, probably not at all, but he was still nice enough not to leave somebody to the mercy of Biff Tannen. That thought at least gave her a little hope for the future.  
“That’s Marty McFly” a very familiar voice then gushed behind her. “Oh my God, he’s a dream!”  
Jennifer groaned. And just like that, her hope disappeared again.


	11. A Change Of Plans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The story advances, with Marty asking Lorraine out and Jennifer deciding that there's nothing more she can do for the moment! How will this end? You'll find out. Oh, and after this chapter, we've officially reached the half-way point of the story!

**11: Chapter Eleven**

November 8, 1955  
04:15 PM PST  
Hill Valley, California

Lorraine smiled broadly, as she watched Marty run out of the Café. Though she was, of course, concerned for her boyfriend’s safety, she was also extremely proud that he’d just single-handedly managed to escape the clutches of Biff Tannen and his gang. “He’s an absolute dream” she whispered, not taking an eye off him.  
“He certainly is cool” Babs said. “You’re lucky you’re dating a guy like him, Lorrie.”  
“Yeah” Lorraine said, shooting a look at George McFly, who was still standing next to her table. Seeing Marty’s strength and confidence made her even more confident of her decision to tell George off. He might have been kind of cute in the way he was narrating his lines to her, but he couldn’t stand in Marty’s shadow. She wondered if they really were related – after all, their last names were the same. If so, Lorraine imagined that in reality, it had to be a very distant relation. George and Marty didn’t resemble each other at all. She wondered why Jennifer hadn’t picked somebody else to serve as Marty’s ‘father’, somebody who bore a closer resemblance to her boyfriend – but then again, Lorraine wouldn’t have known any other McFlys in the vicinity that were of the right age to supposedly marry her. As it was, it didn’t matter, because they hadn’t fallen for her trap.  
She got up and headed to the door to see Marty better – he was on some kind of wheeled board he had loaned from some kids, and was fleeing on that! She was practically drooling with awe as she looked at him, which stopped her from noticing the person who moved to stand next to her until she was already there.  
“Jennifer Parker” Lorraine muttered.  
“Lorraine Baines” Jennifer replied, calmly. “Having fun out here?”  
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m watching my _boyfriend_ escape Biff Tannen” Lorraine replied. Jennifer had the tendency to show up at the most inconvenient moments. She was just getting ready to have a better look at Marty’s escapades, and now, that… that girl was there again. She felt the urge to just push her away from the Café, give her a few kicks in the stomach, and be done with it… it wasn’t like Jennifer didn’t deserve it. However, that would mean she’d miss looking at Marty.  
Jennifer took a look at Marty as well, who was now holding onto a truck. Then, she turned back to Lorraine. “I saw you talking to George earlier” she said.  
“That’s right” Lorraine confirmed.  
“I noticed you turned him down” Jennifer continued, seemingly undisturbed at Lorraine’s obvious ignorance of her. “Why did you do that?”  
“Because I’ve got a boyfriend already, _miss_ Parker” Lorraine hissed, turning to her. “I can’t believe what’s wrong with you. Marty’s told you about us, apparently twice, I’ve told George, and yet you don’t seem to get it. I’m sorry you can’t find a guy, but that’s no reason to disturb a happy relationship!” She stared at Jennifer. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some more to do.”  
Jennifer simply stared at her for a moment, then sighed, walked past her and took off. Lorraine sighed as well, hoping Jennifer had finally got the hint, and turned back to the proceedings. She was just in time to see Marty catch a hold on Biff’s front bumper. Her heart sped up, as she saw the car heading straight towards a manure truck. Already, she got a mental image of Marty crushed between the two vehicles, and she shrieked.  
The next moment, Marty noticed the truck as well. He looked at the truck, then at Biff, and then he jumped off the board and ran _through the car_ only to land on the board on the other side. Biff and his gang were watching him with amazement, and only turned back at the last moment to see the manure truck they were on a collision course with. Lorraine stared at them as they tried to avoid it as hard as they could, but hit it anyway. The truck’s back opened and a load of manure poured into Biff’s car.  
Lorraine grinned. Once more, she felt proud of having Marty McFly for a boyfriend. And at that moment, she wanted to stay with him for the rest of her life. “He’s an absolute dream” she once more whispered to herself, smiling broadly. She didn’t think she would get that smile off her face today. 

oooooooo

Jennifer Parker gasped, too, as she saw Marty perform the successful end to his skateboard trick. Apparently, this was one aspect of his memory that hadn’t been wiped. She smiled while watching Marty go over to the kid he got the skateboard from. The boy was watching him with amazement and didn’t stop staring even after he got the skateboard back. Jennifer smirked. She should’ve expected such a reaction. Marty’s skateboard tricks were cool in 1985, but unheard of in 1955.  
The smile on her face changed into a frown as she saw Marty approach Lorraine, who was practically beaming at him. “Hey, Lorraine” he said.  
“Marty!” Lorraine exclaimed, ecstatic. “That was… that was amazing!”  
“Thanks” Marty said, blushing. “Uh, Lorraine?”  
“Yeah?” Lorraine replied.  
Marty smiled at her, and looked at the crowd around them who were anxiously watching the proceedings. “I was wondering… would you like to go to the Enchantment under the Sea Dance with me?”  
Lorraine grinned. “Of course, silly” she said. She walked up to him, hugged him and kissed him full on the lips.  
The crowd cheered, but Jennifer felt like she was dying inside. Not only had all chances for George to ask Lorraine out just been reduced to zero, she’d also watched her boyfriend kiss his mother. Well, Lorraine had initiated the kiss, but Marty had immediately returned it. Seeing Marty do something which still amounted to cheating on her was bad enough. Seeing with who he was doing it…  
Jennifer sighed, and turned around, pushing her way past people who were unwittingly cheering on the worst couple in history. She felt that she had been humiliated enough for today. Sighing, she walked back to the Brown mansion. 

oooooooo

When Jennifer opened the door into the garage, she couldn’t see Doc at first. She frowned – he hadn’t been in the mansion, so surely he should be here. Had he just gone off without telling her? She supposed it was possible, but considering the fact that the door was open…  
“Jennifer!” Doc called out, walking around a corner and looking at her. “Good to see you again. Come on, there’s something I need to show you.”  
“Uh, Doc?” Jennifer asked. “I’m afraid things didn’t go so well today.”  
“We’ll talk about that later” Doc said. “First, you need to see my model for getting you home. I must apologize for the crudity, though – I didn’t have time to build it to scale or to paint it.”  
Jennifer frowned, but followed him anyway. When she saw the model, though, she couldn’t help but gasp. It was beautiful. “Great work, Doc” she said, impressed.  
“Thank you… you really think so?” Doc replied. “I told you, it’s not to scale. But never mind that right now, it works anyway.” He walked over to the model. “Okay, we run some industrial strength electrical cable from the top of the clock tower down to spreading it over the street between two lamp posts. Meanwhile, we outfitted the vehicle with this big pole and hook which runs directly into the flux-capacitor. At the calculated moment, you – and Marty, I hope – start off from down the street driving toward the cable accelerating to 88 miles per hour. According to the flyer, at 10.04pm lightning will strike the clock tower sending 1.21 gigawatts into the flux-capacitor, sending you back to 1985.” He sighed, taking a deep breath. “All right now, watch this.”  
He gave Jennifer a model car. “Please, wind up the car and release it. I’ll simulate the lightning.”  
“You got it, Doc” Jennifer replied.  
Jennifer wound up the car, while Doc fetched a generator for simulating lightning. She looked at Doc, who smiled. “Ready, set, release!” he called out.  
Jennifer put down the car and let go of it. It drove towards the cables, down the street. Just before it hit them, Doc simulated the lightning. The car hit the electrified wires and caught fire as a result, and fell down to the floor. A trash can was run over and caught fire. Doc gawked, which was quite the hilarious face on him, and quickly grabbed a fire extinguisher to put it out.  
“Wow!” Jennifer exclaimed. “Is that supposed to go well?”  
“Don’t worry” Doc ensured her. “In the real experiment, the car won’t catch fire, you won’t fall off an edge, and you... and Marty... should be safely transported back to the future.” He looked at her. “Speaking of your boyfriend, any luck in getting his parents together?”  
“Afraid not, Doc” Jennifer replied. “I got George over to Lorraine to ask her out, but she and Marty must’ve convinced themselves we’re in cahoots or something, because she told him off. George was then bullied by Biff Tannen, but Marty stood up for him. He escaped on a skateboard...”  
“A what?” Doc asked.  
“Never mind” Jennifer said. “You’ll find out. Anyway, he managed to get away safely, but after that, he asked Lorraine out to the dance.”  
Doc grimaced. “I presume she accepted.” Jennifer nodded. “Damn!” He started pacing up and down. “You need to get Marty alone. Otherwise, you’ll never be able to convince him you’re from the future, and you'll never get George and Lorraine back together!”  
“I know, but when!” Jennifer exclaimed. “He’s _always_ with Lorraine – he’s sticking to her like glue! And besides, he won’t believe me anyway – not without some good proof!”  
Doc frowned. “Do you think the DeLorean would help with that?”  
Jennifer looked over at the car, and slowly began to smile. “I guess” she said. “Hey, that’s an idea. And if we convince Marty, then surely he’d be able to stage a convincing break-up with Lorraine... just enough for George to comfort her! That could work!”  
“It could” Doc said. “But not right now. We can’t show the DeLorean to Marty in broad daylight, nor can we risk showing it to him in front of Lorraine or her family. No, we’ve got to wait until he’s somewhere away from them. And there’s only one day we know for sure where he will be.”  
Jennifer nodded, understanding. “The dance” she whispered. “But... Lorraine will be there, too!”  
“You’ll just need to talk him into leaving her behind for a while” Doc said. “You still have four days, surely you’ll think of something.”  
Jennifer groaned. “Four days” she muttered. “The dance... on the same night we’re supposed to go back... I don’t know, Doc, I think we’re cutting this rather close.”  
“We are” Doc admitted. “But I’m afraid there’s no other option. It’s either this or erasure for your boyfriend. At least from the photograph you got, we know we still have some time.”  
Jennifer sighed. She knew the inventor was telling the truth, but it wasn’t really resonating inside her. “Whatever you say, Doc” she muttered. “Whatever you say.”


	12. Blossoming Relationships

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All right, this is a wacky chapter. Not only the first part, but the second as well. I thus edited (you might say censored) it heavily before I deemed it ready for posting, adding some more justification in the first scene and removing some excesses in the second. Nevertheless, the basics of the scene are all intact, and they're strange. Be ready for that. And be ready for reviewing, of course.

**12: Chapter Twelve**

November 9, 1955  
1:00 PM PST  
Hill Valley, California  


“But I still don’t understand! What makes you think he’ll break up with Lorraine, he’s fallen head over heels in love with her!”  
Jennifer groaned, and stared at Marty’s father. “I just know” she said. “We will convince him to break up with Lorraine. Remember, this is your benefit I’m looking out for. You wouldn’t want Darth Vader...”  
George shivered. “Please, no.” He shook his head. “All right, what was the plan again?”  
“8:50” Jennifer said. “Where are you gonna be?”  
“I’m going to be at the dance” George replied.  
“And where will I be?” Jennifer pressed on.  
“You’ll be outside the school.”  
“And where will Marty and Lorraine be?”  
“Somewhere around the dance” George responded. “You know, how _will_ you know where they’ll be? How would you know they’re even still there at the time?”  
“I’ll figure something out” Jennifer replied. “All right. Now, at 9 PM, Marty’s going to break up with Lorraine. You watch him do it, walk up to Lorraine, and try to comfort her. That shouldn’t be too hard, should it?”  
“It shouldn’t” George replied. “But where will I find them?”  
“I’ll let you know” Jennifer promised him. “Do-uncle Emmett is in on this, and I’m sure he’ll be able to help you. And I will be there, too.”  
George sighed, and sat down. “I know” he muttered. “It’s just that it sounds so hard. I’m not sure whether we can do it.”  
Jennifer sat down next to him. “But it’s not hard at all” she said, patting him on the back and gently smiling at him. “All you have to do is walk up to her and comfort her.”  
“I know that” George said. “That should be pretty easy. But I’m not sure whether we can just break up a happy couple. It just sounds terribly selfish. Not when there’s...”  
“What?”  
George blushed fiercely. Jennifer frowned. “What were you saying, George?”  
“Nothing” George replied, his voice barely more than a whisper. “Forget about it.”  
“George, what were you going to say?” Jennifer insisted.  
“Nothing” George insisted in turn.  
“George...” Jennifer said, staring into his eyes.  
The other teen flinched, hesitated, and finally began to stammer. “I, I... I just...” he started, and shook his head. “I mean, I do, you know, kind of like Lorraine, but she’s... she’s always been more like some unreachable dream to me. I’ve never talked to girls like her before... except to you.”  
Jennifer frowned again, and her eyes went wide. “Wait, you’re not saying...”  
“I, you know, I kinda like you” George muttered, his head turning even redder than it already was. “I am really sorry and I don’t mean anything by it, and I’ve been trying to shake it off, but you keep being around me and... well, I really liked that. You’re pretty. You’re the first girl who’s ever seriously really talked to me...” He winced. “Please, don’t shout at me. I know I shouldn’t...”  
“I – it’s all right, George” Jennifer said, trying to keep herself from getting dizzy. This was getting even more complicated. Marty and his mother were in love, and now, Marty’s father was in love with – or at least had a crush on – her! And well, she couldn’t completely say she disliked that, either. Not now. She took a good look at him, and her features softened. “George, can I... be honest with you?”  
“Sure, Jennifer” George mumbled.  
“The thing is... I like you, too” Jennifer said. “Not like that, really, but well, a bit. Now don’t get me wrong. I miss Marty, and I want him back. But to see him abandon me like that... makes me feel that I should leave him behind, too, at least for a while. You’re such a sweet boy, and, well... even if it were just a distraction from Marty, I’d like to make up for getting you into this problem in the first place.” She looked George into the eye. “So if you don’t mind, I’d like to be your unofficial girlfriend... until we get this mess fixed.”  
George smiled at her. “That would be really... nice” he said.  
“I’m nice” Jennifer said, grinning. She hugged George, who was startled at first, but eventually hugged her back. It looked like if she didn’t get Marty back immediately, then at least she’d have some kind of a replacement. Jennifer wondered what Marty and Lorraine were doing. From what she’d seen of them so far, it probably wasn’t much good.  


oooooooo  


“Marty?”  
“Hmm...”  
“Marty? You need to wake up.”  
Marty rolled over, recognizing Lorraine’s voice but seeing no need to change his reaction. He was still tired, and at the moment, the bed was much more tempting than even she was. “Gimme... five more minutes.”  
“Can’t do, Marty” Lorraine said. “You have to get up.”  
Marty let out a groan and rolled back again. He closed his eyes and had started dozing off again when he heard Lorraine’s voice: “Fine. You won’t get up the regular way? Then we’ll solve it another way.”  
He had barely wondered what that might mean until he suddenly felt soft, warm lips brushing against his. Marty’s eyes opened, surprised, and he saw Lorraine was kissing him. Grinning, he embraced her.  
Lorraine pulled away after a few seconds, leaving Marty smiling broadly. “I’ve got to admit – that was an awesome way to be woken up” he said. “If you do that every time, I don’t think I will have any trouble waking up on time anymore.”  
“Glad to have served” Lorraine said, smirking. “But what do you mean by ‘awesome’?”  
Marty frowned. “Well, just... great” he said, unsure. Wasn’t awesome a simple, common word? Whatever. It was probably not all that important. “Can you join me here for a minute?” he asked, pointing at the bed.  
Lorraine blushed. “I don’t think Mom and Dad would find that a good idea” she pointed out. “The moment they’d catch us in bed together, they would throw us out.”  
Marty shrugged, sitting up. “I know, but you can lock the door, right?” he asked. “And there isn’t anything we _could_ do right now. I’m wearing pyjamas, and you’re wearing regular clothes.”  
“That could change” Lorraine suggested, smiling mischievously.  
“Yeah, but I don’t think we would want to move that fast in our relationship” Marty replied. “I like you and I know you like me, but I don’t think we’re ready for something like that.” He patted the bedspread immediately next to him invitingly. “So there’s no harm in just cuddling up to each other.  
Lorraine shrugged. “Oh, fine” she muttered. “If that’s what it takes to get you out of bed.” She locked the door and walked over to Marty, pulling the blanket away and climbing next to him in the bed. Lorraine placed her head on the pillow next to Marty as they held each other in a tender embrace, which was both romantic and necessary to keep either of them from falling out.  
“What day is it again today?” Marty asked, softly.  
“Thursday” Lorraine replied. “Two days to go to the dance.”  
Marty smiled. “You think we’ll have fun?”  
“I don’t doubt it” Lorraine said. “You know, I kind of hope Jennifer will be there too. I know I shouldn’t feel that way, but seeing her jealousy when you’re dancing with me will make it even better.”  
Marty grinned. “You’re such a bad girl.” He was tempted to gently pinch her bottom, but decided against it – their relationship wasn’t quite _that_ stable yet.  
“Hear who’s talking” Lorraine replied. “Wasn’t it you who tried to take off my bra on Monday?”  
Marty blushed fiercely at the reminder. “I guess I was just curious” he said, defensively. “I don’t really know whether I’ve ever been in a relationship with a girl before, after all, and now that I am... well, I’d really like to explore the possibilities.”  
Lorraine smiled mischievously at him. “Well, you might get some further chances on Saturday” she told him. “I saw a beautiful revealing pink dress at Ruth’s Frock Shop the other day. You’ll be speechless.”  
“I don’t think it matters for that whether you’re wearing a dress or not” Marty said, looking into her gorgeous brown eyes. “You’re beautiful no matter what.”  
Lorraine blushed and kissed him passionately. Marty kissed her back and helped her sit up. His left hand once more moved to her blouse, tugging on it to pull it up as far as possible and once more touching the bra lacing.  
“Mmm... not now” Lorraine muttered.  
Marty blushed. “I wasn’t trying to take it off, you know” he replied, trying to give her the most innocent look he could. “I was just... exploring.”  
“And if I let you have your way, that exploring would go much further than either of us would really want” Lorraine said, smirking. “I know you’re tempted to move beyond kissing, and I understand, but it just isn’t right. Certainly not so soon. And imagine if my parents did manage to walk in...”  
“They would be angry enough even at seeing us kissing like this” Marty pointed out. “I get your point, though. I’ll just be content with stroking your back then.” He moved his hand under her skirt and softly rubbed Lorraine’s bare back, which caused her to moan softly as they resumed their kiss.  
“Marty...” Lorraine muttered.  
“Lorrie...” Marty muttered back. “Love you... so much...”  
Lorraine giggled. “You too” she mumbled. “You... too...”  
“Lorraine! Marty!”  
Lorraine slightly bit Marty’s tongue from surprise as she was startled at her mother’s voice. Stella Baines was knocking on the door. “Are you still there? School starts in half an hour!”  
The two rapidly parted, Marty groaning audibly. “Are you okay?” Lorraine asked, worried. “Did I hurt you?”  
“It’s all right” Marty responded, wincing. “It’s just... you know, maybe we shouldn’t do this every morning after all.”  
Lorraine nodded. “I know” she muttered, before raising her voice. “Coming, mother!”  
“Where are my pants?” Marty asked.  
“How should I know, _you_ were the one to take them off.”  
“Well, considering the fact that you’re always staring at me when I do so, I think you might know better than I do.”  
“Hypocrite. Who was trying to feel me up on Monday _and_ this morning?”  
Marty cast a nervous look at the door, then replied: “I wasn’t trying to feel you up. I just wanted to...”  
“Explore? If I let your instincts have their way, you wouldn’t just have looked.”  
“And if you let your instincts have their way, I don’t think you would have minded.”  
Lorraine sighed. “Oh, forget it. Come on, we’ve got to get ready. If Mom even suspects what we were doing in here, things could get heated.” She frowned. “Another reason to move out as soon as I can.”  
Marty chuckled, looking through the cabinets before he finally found his pants. “You know, I think you’re accentuating the negative a bit too much here. Your parents can’t be all that bad.”  
“You’ve lived with them for four days” Lorraine argued, slyly glancing at Marty’s legs. “You know how overprotective my mom can be. And let’s not start about my Dad.”  
“That’s still no reason to move out when you can” Marty responded. “You should be reasonable, Lorraine. If you left your parents’ house, you wouldn’t have an income provider anymore.”  
Lorraine walked up to Marty and put her arms around him. “Funny – I thought I knew just the candidate for that.”  
Marty chuckled. “Don’t be silly, Lorrie” he replied, taking her arms off him and finishing putting on his pants. “I like you very much, but living together... well, I’m not ruling out that we might end up doing that one day, but not right now.”  
“You’re right that I shouldn’t move out right away” Lorraine said. Then, putting up a hurt look, she added: “But if I did move out, are you saying you wouldn’t support me?”  
Marty grinned. “Keep looking at me like that and I wouldn’t be able to do anything else” he said, patting her on the back and giving her a quick kiss. “Come on, let’s go to breakfast. I don’t know about you, but I’m kind of hungry.”


	13. Some Bad Omens

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter, detailing the situation on the eve of the Dance. Jennifer's... not happy. About the proceedings. But well, that can't be helped, can it? At least, not until tomorrow...

**13: Chapter Thirteen**

November 11, 1955  
06:00 PM PST  
Hill Valley, California

“Jennifer, I’m still not sure about this idea of yours.”   
Jennifer looked up at Doc, and shrugged. “Why not?” she argued. “It gives me something to do, and it’ll help to put poor George at ease with his worries about whether he’ll do well when he goes to the dance with Lorraine.”   
“I suppose it would” Doc said. “But the idea of going out on a date with your boyfriend’s father...”   
“It’s not a date” Jennifer immediately responded, defensively. “I’m merely taking him out to dinner. Nothing wrong with that, right?”   
“Not really, in theory... but it still doesn’t sound all right to me” Doc responded. “Jennifer, you must keep sight on your priorities. George gaining a crush on you is not part of them.”   
“It’s a matter of confidence” Jennifer said. “I told you, he’s terribly shy. I figured I could help him out in that department.” She sighed. “And I’ll admit I... I kind of like him. Not in that way... I think... I’m not sure... well. What I mean is, he’s not quite like Marty, but at least he provides a shoulder to lean upon in these hard times.”   
“I see” Doc replied, eyeing her warily. He then sighed. “I guess that is your business more than it is mine. You are nearly an adult, after all. Just remember, you need to travel back to the future in twenty-eight hours from now, roughly... with your boyfriend in the time machine and his parents in love with each other.”   
“Check, Doc” Jennifer said. “Don’t worry, it’ll all work out fine. I’m sure that...” She looked up. “Ah, there he is. Right on time.”   
She headed towards the coat rack to take her jacket and then moved out of the doorway before Doc could ask any more annoying questions. The inventor was nice, but he was a little overprotective sometimes. She guessed she couldn’t blame him, though. When something like a person’s existence was at stake, you would want to make sure everything turned out fine.   
Jennifer, though, hadn’t got any problems with that. Sure, she was a bit worried about Marty, who might be only a day and a half away from erasure if she was reading the photograph right – one more reason to ensure that everything got fixed the next evening. But she wasn’t worried about herself. She knew she had taken a liking to George’s shyness and politeness, but she was sure she could keep her own emotions under control and have room to spare for George’s as well. She knew what she had to do, and she wasn’t going to let George distract her from the business at hand – nor let her distract him, for that matter.  
She took a deep breath and walked up to George, who was – unsurprisingly – on his bike. “Hi, George” she said, cheerfully.   
“H-hi” George replied, clearly nervous. “You look n-nice, Jennifer.”   
“Thank you” Jennifer said. “You look pretty good in that suit, too. I’m sure Lorraine will like you in it.”   
George’s face brightened. “Are you sure?” he asked.   
“Of course I am!” Jennifer said. “Wouldn’t have said it otherwise. I would be a pretty lousy temporal girlfriend if I wasn’t honest to you, right?”   
“Uh, yeah” George said. “So... where do you want to go?”   
“Well, I don’t know” Jennifer replied. “I’ve never been here in uh, Hill Valley, after all. Doc... uncle Emmett told me that Holt’s Diner is nice, though.”   
“Yeah, it is” George said. “Nice, comfortable place with a view of the town square. How are we going to get there, though? I’m afraid I can’t drive a car, and I couldn’t convince my father to drive us.”   
Jennifer shook her head. She couldn’t have expected that from him. But it didn’t matter. “I’ve got just the solution for that” she replied. Smiling mischievously, she hopped on the back of the bike, clinging onto George’s sides. “Ride on, George!” she added, encouragingly.   
George blushed fiercely at first, but then he smiled faintly and started riding towards the Square. Jennifer sighed. It was hard to avoid the feeling that she was only doing this for some silly revenge on Marty. She hoped that tomorrow, Lorraine would take over the burden of dealing with nice but uncomfortable George McFly from her. 

oooooooo

Jennifer leaned back in her seat. Thus far, the evening had gone surprisingly well. George hadn’t acted overly passionate or aggressive towards her – of course, since he was one of the most nervous kids she knew, she hadn’t really expected that from him, but you never knew sometimes – but had instead treated her politely and respectfully. He was her dinner partner, and not really her date. No, really. He wasn’t.   
The location they had picked – or rather, that she had picked and George had given his consent to – was nice as well. The only thing unsettling about it was that it offered her a view of the clock tower. That constantly reminded her that, some twenty-seven hours from now, the clock would get struck by lightning and she would have to get home... with or without Marty McFly.   
Jennifer shook her head. She didn’t want to think about Marty right now. Instead, she offered George the nicest smile she had and simply continued eating, occasionally trying to initiate some conversation with Marty’s father – partly to make him feel at ease, but also because she was genuinely curious about him and the general teenage life in the 1950s.   
The evening could have continued like that for a long time if not for one unexpected event. Their dinner had progressed quite far at that point – they were nearing the moment that George would order dessert – and Jennifer was just eating a steak when she suddenly heard a very familiar voice. She nearly choked in her food. _Out of all the diners in Hill Valley, he couldn’t possibly have come here..._  
But he had. Moments later, Marty walked into the room, holding the door open for Lorraine to follow. They were busy chattering, but Marty instantly silenced when he noticed Jennifer. Lorraine noticed her the second after, and the three stared at each other for a while before Lorraine snapped her head away from Jennifer and she and Marty moved to a table – at the exact opposite of the room.   
Jennifer growled. The table may be far away, but from here she could see exactly what Marty and Lorraine were doing. Why did she have to pick this restaurant again? She glanced at George, but he didn’t even look up. Busy eating his steak as he was, he was completely oblivious to the world around him, and thus also to the new customers of Holt’s.   
She was jumpy the rest of the evening – or rather, the rest of the time they were there. George ordering dessert in a gallant manner just like Jennifer had taught him didn’t help matters as it meant they had to stay longer. It had barely been five minutes when Marty gave Lorraine a quick peck on the cheek. Jennifer bit on her tongue in desperation and turned away, but she could hear them giggling on the other side of the room. “If only Marty knew that he’s not making fun of me, he’s really fooling himself...” she muttered.   
“What?” George asked, startled. She shook his head, motioning that it was nothing, and George simply resumed eating. Jennifer sighed. Poor George McFly obviously had a long way to go in regards to social customs. 

oooooooo

“So, how did it go?”   
Jennifer sighed. “About as bad as it could have gone” she muttered, staring at her – or Marty’s? – mentor, as she entered the hallway of the Brown mansion. “Sure, George was very nice to me, and he’s even adorable, in a way... but he’s still terribly shy. Worst of all, when we were nearing dessert, Marty and Lorraine showed up.”   
Doc frowned. “That doesn’t sound good. Did they attempt to interfere?”   
Jennifer shook her head and sighed again. “Not in so many words. But they were making out half the time just to annoy me. I could hear them laughing at me whenever I turned away.”   
“‘Making out’?” Doc said, frowning.   
“Kissing” Jennifer clarified. “I swear, once I finally get the truth through Marty’s thick skull we’re going to have a long talk about this!”   
“The sheer horror your boyfriend would have at this news would probably punish him enough” Doc speculated, helping Jennifer take off her coat. “Although it might also drive him to an irrational desire to object to the recognition of temporal travelling reality as it stands.”   
“Could you repeat that in English?”   
“It is English” Doc replied. “Not the English you use every day, perhaps, but English nonetheless. I meant that having gone so far in his relationship with miss Baines, Marty would be even less willing to accept the fact that she’s his mother, because he won’t be able to fathom all that it entails.”   
Jennifer nodded. “I guess so” she muttered. “I know I wouldn’t like it. So you’re saying that just showing the DeLorean to Marty won’t convince him, then?”   
“Oh, it might” Doc said. “It’s just that while he might be convinced, he will have a hard time accepting it. Thus, there might be a lot of work for you in persuading him to do so.”   
Jennifer thought about that for a second. “Do you think informing Lorraine as well might help?” she asked. “I mean, if she accepts time travel, maybe Marty would be more inclined to do so too. She’s his...” she made a face, forcing herself to say the word, “... _girlfriend_ right now, after all.”   
“Perhaps... or perhaps she doesn’t accept it, and then we would have a worse situation” Doc said. “Also, I am extremely hesitant about just letting everybody know about time travel. Let’s limit this to as few people as possible, shall we?”   
“Yeah, I suppose so” Jennifer said, sighing. “I don’t really like the thought of telling Marty’s mom about this either. After all, we don’t exactly like each other right now... nor in the future, for that matter.”   
“Do you two have an antagonistic relationship in the future?” Doc asked.   
“You could say that” Jennifer replied. “She constantly complains against Marty that I’m a bad girl with whom he shouldn’t spend any time and whom he actually shouldn’t date at all. Because of that, I haven’t interacted with her a lot the last few months, but Marty always passes on the complaints he gets from her and how she didn’t behave like I do in her youth.”   
“Really?” Doc said. “You don’t strike me as being a particularly irresponsible girl.”   
“I don’t think I am” Jennifer said. “But she does. Although from what I’ve seen this past week, I believe she’s been a hypocrite all along. Kissing Marty in public, openly flirting with him everywhere... sure, part of that could have been instigated by Marty, but I doubt she’d go along with it willingly if even half of her stories were true.”   
“I see” Doc said. “Well, I’m afraid there’s nothing more we can do at the moment. I would advise you to let the matter slide for now. After all, tomorrow will be a long day.”   
“Tell me about it” Jennifer replied, sighing. “Doc, do you really think everything will work out? It is going to be quite an endeavour...”   
In response, the scientist gave her a friendly pat on the shoulder. “If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything” he said. “Remember that, Jennifer.”   
Jennifer smiled at him. “I will, Doc” she replied. “Now, for another subject, let’s see what’s on TV tonight.”


	14. Fun At The Dance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All right, this might or might not seem wacky, and if it doesn't, it's probably my censorship which was fairly heavy this time. Avoiding having to label this fic Mature is important, for my own conscience at least. Now, this chapter deals with Marty and Lorraine getting to the dance, and already getting in trouble... but not after some touching scenes which might be overly sappy or just plain silly due to my inexperience with how real romance works. But hey, you're not being paid to read the story, right? Although I would appreciate a review.

****

**14: Chapter Fourteen  
**

November 12, 1955  
08:15 PM PST  
Hill Valley, California  


Marty McFly normally wasn’t the most impatient type. However, after around thirty minutes of waiting, anyone’s patience could run out. He stared at Stella Baines, Lorraine’s mother, spared a glimpse at the stairs for the so manieth time, and then looked back at her. “What on earth is taking her so long?” he asked, frustrated.  
Stella smiled. “It’s an important evening, Marty” she reminded him. “Lorraine wants to look her best for you.”  
“I appreciate that very much, but I just wish it wouldn’t take so long” Marty complained. “The way this is going, the dance will be over by the time she gets down. And I was really looking forward to dancing with her.”  
“You don’t have to wait much longer, Marty” Lorraine’s familiar voice sounded. Marty looked up to see his girlfriend turn around the corner and walk graciously down the stairs. His jaw immediately dropped... or rather, it took a plunge into the deepest ends of the Mariana Trench. Lorraine looked absolutely _stunning_. Her dark brown hair was neatly curled and she was wearing a very revealing dress which exposed her shoulders, her arms and even the top of her breasts, which looked very sexy like this. Marty gawked, as he felt himself falling for her all over again.  
Unfortunately, Stella didn’t have any such positive feelings, and instead scowled at her daughter. “Lorraine Stella Baines! I thought I told you not to buy that dress!”  
Lorraine frowned. “Please, mother” she said. “What’s wrong with it?”  
“You know what’s wrong with it” Stella said, folding her arms. “It’s improper for wearing at a school dance. What if your father finds out about it?”  
“He won’t” Lorraine said. “You told me he was out the entire night for work. And I want to look good at this dance. Marty likes it, right?” She smirked at the sight of her boyfriend, who had been staring at her throughout the conversation.  
“Uh, yeah” Marty replied, slowly becoming aware that he was being addressed. “She looks very... nice. In it.”  
“I suppose so, but I still don’t like it” Stella said, firmly. “Look, Lorraine, I’m only trying to look out for you. You’re my daughter, and I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you because you wear a dress like that.”  
Lorraine frowned. “If a jerk like Biff Tannen would go after me, I doubt he’d do it because of the kind of dress I’m wearing” she said. “Besides, I’m with Marty. He’ll protect me. You trust Marty, don’t you?”  
Stella looked at the boy. “Yes, I do” she finally said. “But...”  
“Besides, there’s no way I can change in time for the dance” Lorraine added, capitalizing on her mother’s indecision. “It’s already past eight. I can’t let poor Marty put up with some more waiting time.”  
Marty nodded. “Mrs. Baines, we have to leave now. If Lorrie... I mean, if _Lorraine_ needs to change first, the dance might be over when we get there. And it’s not like there’s one every week.”  
“I doubt changing a dress would take that long” Stella protested.  
“It wouldn’t, but if I pulled this dress over my head and put on a new one, I’d have to do my hair all over again” Lorraine said. “Do you know how long it took me to fix this?”  
“I guess so” Stella said, sighing with resignation. “Fine, you can wear the dress, but at least put on your jacket. It’s cold outside, after all.”  
“Well, the dance is being held indoors” Marty pointed out. “But I get your point. You’d better wear your jacket, Lorraine.”  
“All right” Lorraine said. She walked up the stairs and returned a minute or two later wearing a white jacket which, in Marty’s opinion, didn’t show her good looks all that well as the dress did – although she still looked pretty. He offered his arm to her, she took it, and they walked out of the house.  
The instant Marty shut the door, Lorraine stared at him. “Why did you take my mom’s side on that jacket issue?”  
“I figured that she might be persuaded more easily on the dress part if I agreed with her on that point” Marty said. “You can take it off once we get to the dance. And I wasn’t really lying when I said time was running out. I can understand you needed time to get your dress fixed, and don’t get me wrong, you looked absolutely gorgeous, but we couldn’t afford wasting any more time arguing with your mom.”  
“I guess you’re right” Lorraine said, sighing. “Gee, I thought she was never going to let me go like this. Mother can be so... uptight, sometimes. She’s not quite like my Dad, but at moments like these... makes me wonder if she allowed herself to have any fun times, or if she really was born a nun.”  
Marty chuckled. “Well, she’s just trying to keep you respectable” he said, gently and carefully running his hand through Lorraine’s curls.  
Lorraine smirked and turned to him. “Then she’s not doing a very good job” she replied, sliding her arms around Marty’s neck and leaning in to kiss him.  
Marty stopped her just before their lips could meet. “Not now” he said. “Your mom could be watching.”  
Lorraine nodded, and let go of him. “Yeah, I suppose” she muttered. “Let’s get into the car and to the dance, then.”  
They walked over to the Baines car, which was parked in front of the house. Marty gentlemanly opened the door for Lorraine, and then walked over to the driver’s seat. He was hesitant about this – like so many things, he didn’t remember driving a car, and he didn’t have a clue whether he had his driver’s license. He hated the thought of killing himself and Lorraine in some freak accident. However, it turned out he didn’t have to worry. Like the way how he knew how to walk and eat despite not remembering ever doing it before his amnesia, starting the car came naturally to him. Before he knew it, they were off to the dance.  


oooooooo  


After a quiet fifteen-minute-drive, they pulled up in the High School’s parking lot. After selecting a good place, Marty halted the car. “Phew” he muttered. “We’re there.”  
“We are indeed” Lorraine said. She peeked through the window. “Looks like the dance is in full swing already. Do you want to go there now?”  
“Perhaps” Marty said, smiling faintly. “You know, despite all that talk about dancing, I’m kind of hesitant to go up there. It’s so much more private here.” He sighed, and put his hand on the door handle to open it.  
Lorraine put her hand over his, stopping him. She smiled at him. “We don’t have to go right away, you know” she said. “There’s no one stopping us from enjoying some time to ourselves out here.”  
“Except for your parents, but I doubt they’re going to show up soon” Marty said. “All right, let’s park for a while then.”  
Lorraine nodded, then reached into her handbag. She retrieved a bottle of alcohol. Marty stifled a laugh. “You’re such a bad girl” he scolded her. “Where’d you get that?”  
“Swiped it from the old lady’s liquor cabinet” Lorraine replied mischievously, taking a sip. She then passed the bottle over to Marty, who swallowed down some as well – but abruptly stopped when he saw Lorraine lighting a cigarette.  
“You smoke, too?” he exclaimed, startled.  
Lorraine frowned. “Why, is there something wrong with that?”  
“No... it’s just unexpected” Marty replied. He stared at her for a moment. “I’ve got to admit that I like you better without that cigarette between your lips.”  
Lorraine smiled and threw it out of the car. “If that pleases you” she said, shrugging.  
Marty smirked mischievously. “Actually, there’s something else that would please me... and I think it would please you as well.”  
Lorraine smirked back, and took off her jacket. Marty stared at her breasts for a while, but stopped when Lorraine extended her arms. Marty immediately leaned against her, embraced her, and they started to kiss. Marty’s tongue slipped into Lorraine’s mouth and twirled around Lorraine’s. Lorraine ran her hand through Marty’s hair and curled a finger in it.  
In the meanwhile, Marty was working on something else entirely. He ran his hands along Lorraine’s dress for a while, gently massaging her sides to their mutual enjoyment, but working his way upwards. Suddenly, though, his hand was over her half-covered breast, gently touching the uncovered parts and lightly squeezing it before she had a chance to react. Lorraine pulled away from the kiss and giggled. “Marty!”  
“What?” Marty asked, innocently.  
“Nothing” Lorraine replied, giving him a peck on the cheek. “It’s just that I’m not wearing anything under that right now, and you might become tempted to... you know.”  
Marty smirked. “And what exactly would be wrong with that?”  
“My Dad...”  
“Good point” Marty replied, cutting her off. He sighed. “I suppose it is for the best, though. Not only might we end up doing something we’d regret later, but your parents would be... angry with you, if they ever found out.”  
“Dad would kill me” Lorraine replied, sighing. “It’s not that I don’t trust you enough for it, Marty... I love you, more than I’ve ever loved any boy before. My mind just thinks it’s too soon.”  
Marty blushed. “I love you too, but that doesn’t mean I want to see you naked right away either” he replied. “Common sense would disagree... so that just leaves me eager to show in another way to show that I love you... with all... (kiss)... my... (kiss)... heart.”  
Lorraine blushed in turn. “Thank you...” she whispered, as Marty once more gently touched her chest, and occasionally darted above it.  
Marty looked at her, moving in close to her face but not closing the gap entirely. “There’s nothing you have to thank me for” he whispered. “All of this – our entire relationship – makes me feel like the luckiest man on earth. I never – ever – want to leave you again.”  
Lorraine smirked. “Is that a marriage proposal?”  
“Perhaps” Marty replied, toying with her curls. “I think it’s a little too early to talk about weddings right now, since we’ve only known each other for a week and we’re both seventeen. If... or when... I propose to you, I want to do it in a grand ceremony worthy of you.” Lorraine blushed. “But believe me that if I had to marry someone right now, there’s no one I’d rather pick than you. I’d love for you to be Lorraine McFly one day.”  
“One day” Lorraine agreed, whispering. “And I’d love to be your wife too, Marty. Living with you will be so much of an improvement over living with my parents.” She sighed.  
Marty gently pulled on her cheeks to form her sigh into a smile, making Lorraine giggle. “Forget about your parents” he whispered, kissing her. “Tonight is all about us.”  
“All about us...” Lorraine agreed, as they embraced and resumed their kiss. They kissed passionately and lovingly, Marty was stroking Lorraine’s shoulders and lower, while she moved her hand underneath Marty’s shirt and suit and stroked his back. For a moment, it seemed like the world around them didn’t exist anymore. Marty even stopped thinking about his amnesia. They only had eyes for each other.  
After their blissful state had lasted around one minute – it could be slightly more or slightly less, but time was the last thing the couple was paying attention to and the moment seemed to last forever – it was suddenly disrupted. Marty’s car door flew open and a gust of cold wind moved inside. As the teen broke the kiss and looked around, annoyed that someone was disturbing this moment with the girl of his dreams, he found himself looking into the eyes of a very angry Biff Tannen.  
“You cost me three hundred bucks damage to my car, you son of a bitch” Biff hissed, pulling Marty off Lorraine. “And I’m going to take it out of your ass.” He stared at Marty, and then noticed Lorraine, especially her low-cut dress. “Well, lookee what we have here” he whispered. “Were you planning to take advantage of my girl, McFly?”  
“Of course not” Marty protested, as Biff threw him towards his gang. “I wasn’t going to do anything she didn’t consent to, you bastard.”  
“Well, that wasn’t very smart of you then” Biff replied, smirking. “But I suppose it means I’ll have the honour.” He looked at Lorraine, who was trying to pull her dress back up. “Oh no, you’re staying right here with me!” he called out, getting into the car and pinning Lorraine’s arms down.  
“Marty!” Lorraine called out, terrified. “Help!”  
“I’m trying!” Marty called back, struggling against the gang. “Let her go, you bastard!”  
Biff turned towards his gang. “Get him out of here!”  
“No!” Marty exclaimed, as Biff shut the door and the gang started dragging him away from the car. He fought as hard as he could, but even he wasn’t a match for the three goons, each of which was bigger than him. With a mental sigh, he realized that the girl whom he’d just been hoping to call his wife one day was on the verge of being raped by the worst man in Hill Valley, and he couldn’t do anything to stop it.


	15. In Which Lorraine Is Saved

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Problems resolved, hurray! Other problems ahead, though, and that's not so great...

**15: Chapter Fifteen**

November 12, 1955  
09:00 PM PST  
Hill Valley, California

Jennifer Parker was pacing around nervously on the dance floor of the High School Gym. At least, George had finally shown up, but now Doc wasn’t coming back. She had asked him to come along, look around for Marty and Lorraine, and tell Marty to come with him. She had hoped that Marty would be the most inclined to listen to the scientist, since his thoughts about her and George were not very positive right now. However, judging from the time Doc was taking, maybe she had been wrong.   
“Do you really think this is going to work, Jennifer?” George asked, quietly. One look at him told Jennifer he was even more nervous than she was. “I’d hate to see Lorraine lash out at me again.”   
“Well, we’re not going there unless we’ve convinced Marty, and if Marty cooperates with us, there shouldn’t be much of a problem” Jennifer said. That was mostly true, although she wasn’t sure yet how to distract George while she and Doc were explaining time travel to Marty.   
“I know” George muttered. “I’m just not sure whether I can comfort Lorraine like that. I always get shy around pretty girls, and, well, even if Marty dumps her... I’m just afraid she still won’t want to have anything to do with me. Or at least, that she won’t want to go to the dance with me.”   
“Well, she wasn’t openly hostile before... not to you at least” Jennifer replied, sighing. “And besides, this is different. You’ll be coming to comfort her! She’ll like that, I’m sure of that. And then, I’m sure that a situation where you take her to the dance will develop naturally.”   
“Yes, yes” George muttered, sighing. Jennifer stared at him, hoping that at least some of the things she’d taught him would be remembered at the crucial moment.   
Then, she saw Doc running up, and smiled. After a moment, however, she frowned. “Doc, uh, uncle Emmett?” she asked, walking over to the outside door of the gym to meet him. “Where’s Marty? Did he blow you off?”   
Doc frowned at her language, but shook his head. “I’m afraid I didn’t even get the chance to talk to him” he replied. “I was still a long way away from the Baines vehicle when I saw Biff Tannen walking up with his gang. Moments later, he dragged someone who was presumably your boyfriend out, who was subsequently carried off by Biff’s gang. Subsequently, Biff headed inside the car and proceeded to... assault... miss Baines.”   
Jennifer gasped, horrified. “Oh no!” she exclaimed. “We’ve got to rescue Marty! Do you know where they took him?”   
“They threw him into the trunk of a car” Doc reported. “I’ll show it to you. What’s your plan, kid? Uh, Jennifer?”   
“We need to get him out, right away” Jennifer decided. “George, you can go over to Biff and stall him. Make sure he doesn’t do anything to Lorraine.”   
“M-me?” George asked, terrified.   
“I’m sorry, but there’s no one else who can do it” Jennifer replied, feeling somewhat guilty at what she was forcing poor Georgie to do. “Doc needs to get back to make sure no one gets too close to the time... I mean, he’s needed elsewhere. And I’ve got to rescue Marty.” Of course, she also didn’t want George to be there when she met up with Marty and Doc at the time machine, but she couldn’t tell him that.   
“But...” George protested.   
“You only have to stall him for about one minute” Jennifer replied, half-truthfully. “Good luck!” She ran off, followed by Doc, who led her to a car that was parked next to the gym. Doc then headed off, as Jennifer ran up to the car. She could see several black musicians were already trying to open the trunk, but to no avail. From inside, Marty was pounding on the car, demanding to be let out.   
“What’s the matter?” she asked.   
“This poor fellow was locked inside my car by some idiots” one musician said. “And unfortunately, the keys are with him – and the trunk can’t be opened from the inside. We’re trying to open it by cutting the lock, though we’re not having much success.”   
“Let me try” Jennifer offered.   
“You?” one of the musicians asked, sceptical. “Well, I guess we haven’t got much to lose.”   
Jennifer frowned, but she started trying to twist the lock open. She was determined to free Marty, knowing much more about what was at stake than the musicians, and hoped that added determination would be decisive in getting him out. Though she rapidly got the idea that the lock would never be open, after a few tries, it suddenly gave way – and the trunk opened. Jennifer winced, as she had nearly sliced her hand in the process.   
Marty nearly _jumped_ out, but came to an abrupt halt as he saw Jennifer. “What are you doing here?” he asked, stunned.   
“Rescuing you” Jennifer replied. “Listen Marty, we need to talk...”   
“We can do that later” Marty interrupted, throwing the car keys to one of the band members before turning to look at her. “This is a great way to redeem yourself for all the trouble you’ve caused us, but... I haven’t got time to talk right now. I’ve got to save Lorrie!” With that, he ran off.   
Jennifer stared after him with disbelief. “He’s calling her Lorrie now?” she muttered to herself. “All right, this has to _stop_.” She started running after him. 

oooooooo

Marty McFly didn’t know whether he should feel relief, confusion or extreme worries. The fact that _Jennifer Parker_ , of all people, had rescued him from the car had seriously twisted his thoughts about her. All week, she had annoyed him and Lorraine, constantly hitting on him. Sure, they had told her off on Tuesday, and paid her back yesterday, but Marty still carried a grudge against her. How dare she assume he was just going to break up with Lorraine because she demanded it?!   
As he thought of dear, sweet Lorraine, worry gained the upper hand in Marty’s mind. The thought of his girl being raped by Biff Tannen was enough to give him nightmares. He had to save her.   
When he turned around the corner, though, he saw a scene he hadn’t expected to see: George McFly was... well, it appeared that he was talking to Biff. For a moment, Marty wondered whether they were in cahoots (although that didn’t fit with Jennifer’s sudden change in behaviour). However, he soon realized that wasn’t the case. Biff was staring at George aggressively, and as George reached out to punch him, Biff took his arm and twisted it onto his back.   
Marty stopped running and walked the last yards towards Biff, who frowned in confusion when he saw the teen. “That’s enough, Biff” he demanded. “Leave Lorraine... and George... alone.”   
“Marty!” Lorraine exclaimed, relieved. Marty turned to her and saw to his relief that she was still wearing her dress – Biff hadn’t had a chance to rape her yet. “Help me! Please!”   
Her terrified cries only helped increase Marty’s anger at Biff. “Let’s have it out” he hissed, enraged.   
“All right” Biff replied, shoving George to the ground. Marty growled, and reached out to punch the bully in the jaw. However, Biff narrowly managed to duck and shoved Marty to the ground. Before they knew it, they were engaged in a bitter fight.   
They struggled for about a minute, Marty neatly avoiding Biff’s punches, but not being able to knock his adversary out entirely. Without the element of surprise, he knew he was comparatively weaker, and thus had to rely on his speed and luck. However, after quite some time exchanging blows, Biff was the one who got lucky. Marty was staring the other way for just one moment, but it was all his enemy needed to strike. Biff smacked Marty into the jaw, causing him to fall back onto the ground and groan in agony.   
“Marty!” Lorraine exclaimed, horrified. She climbed out of the car and tried to jump on Biff.   
In response, Biff started laughing. He roughly pushed her to the ground and grinned evilly at her. Marty, though enraged, felt absolutely helpless once more – he had been punched so hard that he couldn’t climb up again.   
However, someone else could. As Marty looked up, he saw George McFly’s eyes narrowing and his left fist tightening. He could tell the other teen was seriously angered now. With a sudden explosion of rage, George reached out and slammed an unsuspecting Biff into his face. The bully spun around twice, hit the car, and finally came to a halt on the ground, unconscious.   
Holding onto the Baines car, Marty finally managed to climb up, stunned. As he looked around, he could see Jennifer and an unfamiliar older guy approaching, looking as amazed as he was. In fact, an entire crowd seemed to be gathering around them.   
He turned to George, who was also speechless. “Thanks” he whispered. “Thank you.” He turned to Lorraine, who was fixing her dress. He helped her back up and squeezed her hand tightly before turning back to their rescuers. “I’m sorry for being mean to you earlier – to you too, Jennifer. I still can’t believe you saved dear Lorraine from that bastard.”   
“Y-y-you’re welcome” George stammered.   
Marty smiled, then turned back to Lorraine. Looking into her sparkling brown eyes he couldn’t imagine how close they had been to losing her joy in life, her spirit, her... he could have lost her, all that he had left in the world, and he was incredibly relieved that it hadn’t happened. “Off to the dance now?” he asked, coyly.   
As Lorraine, though still shaken, smiled back at him and nodded, Jennifer shook her head. “If you don’t mind, we have something to discuss with you first” she said. “It’s very important, so I’d prefer not to wait until you, uh, you’ve finished the dance.”   
Marty frowned, contemplating her suggestion. On one hand, this sounded very much like what Jennifer had said last Monday, when she had tried to feed him that nonsense about time travel. On the other hand, he certainly owed her – and George – a favour, and he did feel that he should give her a chance to apologize. He looked at Lorraine, who was also clearly reluctant, but slowly nodded, sealing the deal. “All right” he finally decided. “But only if Lorraine can come, too.” He smiled lovingly at his girlfriend. “There are no secrets between us.”  
Jennifer and the older man – Marty presumed that he was this Dr. Brown fellow – exchanged glances in turn. Dr. Brown sighed, clearly unhappy, but finally nodded. “All right” Jennifer said. “You can come too, Lorraine.”   
“Thank you, Jennifer” Lorraine said, and Marty could sense she was warming up to her old rival – not much yet, but a bit. The six of them then set off for a walk out of the parking lot, with Dr. Brown leading, Jennifer and George following, while Marty and Lorraine closed the ranks. Marty tightly squeezed Lorraine’s hand and they exchanged glances. Marty could tell Lorraine was hesitant too, but they were both willing to reconcile with George and Jennifer. In principle at least.   
After a few minutes of walking, they arrived at a small area filled with trees adjacent to the gym, which Lorraine had told him was known as the Hill Valley Park. They took a few turns, and then arrived at a patch of open space. As Marty looked at it, his jaw dropped.   
In the centre of this open space was a strange... thing. Marty hadn’t got a clue whether it was a spaceship or a car, but it seemed to have elements of both. As he looked around, he could see that Lorraine and George were as stunned as he was. Jennifer and Doctor Brown seemed to be unaffected, though. The teen swallowed, wondering what this could possibly mean.


	16. Necessary Explanations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, we've come to that moment at last, where Marty (and the others) find out the truth. I hope you'll find his reactions realistic - I tried to show a fine balance between Marty's natural stubbornness and the evidence with which he's presented making him cave in. Please read and review.

**16: Chapter Sixteen**

November 12, 1955  
09:20 PM PST  
Hill Valley, California

Jennifer Parker breathed nervously, staring at a stunned Marty and Lorraine. She realized that if she failed to convince them now, all might be lost. Marty would never get back with her again, and more importantly, he would be erased from existence. The photograph she had on her showed more and more of Marty’s sister fading away and Jennifer was terrified that time would run out before she had a chance to convince them.   
Fortunately for her, Marty was the first of them to speak – although it was a difficult question, not a statement. He simply stared at the time machine, then stammered: “What... on _earth_... is that?”   
“That’s a car” Jennifer replied, trying to appear calm and reasonable. “Don’t you recognize it?”   
A strange look flashed across Marty’s face for just one instant, but the next it was gone and he shook his head. “No” the teen muttered. “Should I?”   
“You should” Jennifer said, walking over to the DeLorean and opening the gull-wing door. She looked at Doc for support, but he only gave her a shaky smile, which she returned. She guessed he wasn’t that good at talking to strangers, and relied on her to finish the job.   
She leaned into the time machine and turned the time circuits on. After activating the flux capacitor, she motioned for Marty and Lorraine to come closer. They did, George nervously lagging behind. Jennifer turned to them and pointed at the flux capacitor. “This is the flux capacitor” she said. “Doc, uh, Doctor Brown invented it... one week ago. It is what makes time travel possible.”   
“Time travel?” Marty whispered, stunned. He tried to regain his composure. “I... I... darn it woman, you’ve tried to tell me this nonsense before and I didn’t fall for it then, and I’m certainly not going to fall for it now!”   
Jennifer sighed. “Take a closer look, Marty” she encouraged him, slipping into the driver’s seat. “These are the time circuits. You use them to set where and when you go. See?” She tapped in a date, just to show him. “Look at this machine. Could any of this be produced around now?”   
“It’s impossible” Lorraine whispered. “I’m not sure where you might have gotten this... this _thing_ from but it can’t be the future! It just can’t!”   
“Perhaps it’s from outer space?” George shyly suggested.   
Jennifer chuckled at the suggestion, and shook her head. “No, it’s not. And I’ll show you why it’s not. Here.” She took her wallet and selected a photograph which displayed Marty, George and Lorraine together, then handed it to Lorraine. She could see the other girl’s eyes go wide as she viewed the picture. “No” she whispered. “Just... no...”   
“What?” Marty demanded, appearing frustrated and frightened at the same time. He took the picture from her and stared with growing horror at the picture and at the inscription at the back... in Lorraine’s handwriting.   
“No” he whispered, staggering back. He stared at Jennifer, at the time machine, at the photograph in his hand, and finally at Lorraine. His eyes locked on hers for a few seconds. Then, he whispered, almost too soft to hear, “mom...?”   
And he fainted.   
Jennifer immediately got up from the time machine, concerned for her sort-of-boyfriend. “Is he okay?” she asked, worried.   
“He should be” Doc said, stepping forwards. “He obviously received quite a shock. I’d anticipated that, but I hadn’t realized that it might express itself in fainting.” He looked at Lorraine, who was leaning against the car now, her face nearly as pale as Marty’s. “Are _you_ okay, miss Baines?”   
“I... I think so” Lorraine managed to stammer. “I don’t... I can’t believe this. This... this... this is like Marty would say, ‘ _heavy_ ’.”   
Jennifer chuckled at that, and then turned to George for a moment, who was just standing there quietly, taking it all in. She decided to focus on Marty, kneeling down and touching his cheek, hoping it would revive him. To her pleasant surprise, Lorraine just looked on, but didn’t give her that disapproving, hateful stare she’d grown accustomed to. It was one more signal that things had changed.   
After Jennifer had patted Marty on the cheek lightly for a few times, her boyfriend finally stirred. “Mom?” he groaned. “iz that... you?”  
Jennifer had to refrain from laughing at the irony. “No” she managed. “It’s Jennifer. Please wake up, Marty.”   
That got his attention. Marty lunged up, startled, and stared at her with an unreadable expression for a few seconds. Then, he whispered: “Holy shit!”   
“Are you all right?” Jennifer asked.   
“I’m... not sure” Marty muttered. “I feel like I’m stepping into a nightmare. The thought, the thought that Lorraine...” He shuddered. “I still can’t believe it. I think I _know_ it, but I can’t accept it. I... I... we fell in _love_ , for crying out loud! It nearly happened instantly once we met, it felt like we were soul mates! Meant to be together! We were already discussing plans for the future!”   
“I know” Jennifer sighed. “Marty, I understand...”   
“No” Marty interrupted her. “No you don’t, and you can’t understand. No one who never went through this would be able to understand how I feel now.”   
Jennifer nodded. “Can you stand up?”   
“I think so” Marty replied. He held onto her as she pulled him back up and he stared at the photograph. She noticed tears were in his eyes, possibly from shock but also from genuine sadness at this tragedy which had struck what had, in his eyes, been a perfectly happy relationship. “Why?” he whispered. “ _Why?_ ”   
Jennifer looked at him sympathetically. “Would you like me to explain the situation to you?” she asked. “Or perhaps Doc should do that...”   
Marty nodded. “Please do” he muttered. He walked over to the DeLorean car seat and sat down, staring at the girl he now knew to be his girlfriend. Jennifer took a deep breath, and began.   
“Marty, you were born in 1968... like I said, as son of George McFly and Lorraine Baines.” Lorraine stared at George at that, but turned back to Jennifer who was continuing her story. “You grew up here in Hill Valley. We’ve been dating since June of 1982, and the day you headed back in time was October 26th, 1985.”   
Marty nodded again. “All right” he whispered.   
“That was the day Doc unveiled the time machine to you... to both of us” Jennifer said. “However,” she cringed at this part, “he had to obtain plutonium to fuel it from terrorists... who shot him. They tried to kill us too, but we managed to escape. However, during our flight, we accidentally travelled back to November 5th, 1955... the day Doc invented the flux capacitor, which is what makes time travel possible.”   
“November 5th” Lorraine whispered. “That’s the day I met Marty.”   
“That’s right” Jennifer said. “Marty and I went uptown after the time machine’s engine broke down and we went into Lou’s Café. There, we looked for Doc’s phone number. We also saw, uh, George there. Marty, you wanted to follow him, rather than following my plan of going to Doc right away. We split up, and I left a note with you telling you where Doc’s house was.”   
Marty went pale – or actually, paler. “The note” he whispered, looking at Lorraine. “We found it... or rather, Lorraine’s Dad did. It was completely drenched with water, though, and my name was the only thing we could make out.”   
“I see” Jennifer muttered. “Anyway, I went to Doc and convinced him I was from the future. In the meanwhile, you must have followed George until he fell out of the tree. That was what, in the original timeline, ended with him getting hit by the car and being tended to by Lorraine, and so they fell in love. This time around, however, you saw him fall, you must have worried about him, have intervened, you were hit instead, and you got amnesia.”   
“That... that actually sounds plausible, as much as I hate to admit it” Marty muttered. “This is just so heavy.”   
“There’s that word again, heavy” Doc said. “Why are things so heavy in the future... or at least, I presume that’s where you got that saying from. Anyway, is there a problem with the earth’s gravitational pull or something?”   
Jennifer chuckled. “Don’t worry, Doc” she assured him. “The future’s going to turn out fine... assuming we can fix the present first.”   
“Fix the present” Lorraine repeated. “You mean, sending George and me to the dance together?” She stared at the boy whom she had, until now, seen as just a ploy in a scheme to destroy her relationship with Marty, rather than as her future husband.   
“That was our plan” Jennifer confirmed. “And it’s necessary too, because if you don’t go to the dance, Marty will be erased from existence.” Seeing Lorraine frown, she took out the photograph she had of Marty’s siblings, and showed it to her. “As you see, Marty is alone on this photograph” she said. “At the start of the week, his brother and sister were also on it, but they’ve gradually disappeared. Only Linda’s feet are left, so Marty will be next.”   
“Linda” Lorraine said, softly. “That’s what I end up naming my daughter?” She shook her head. “This is just too bizarre to think about.”   
“I know” Jennifer replied. “But you have to do it. You wouldn’t want Marty to disappear, would you?”   
Lorraine shot a hesitant look at Marty, and then at George. “No...” she mumbled, uncertain.   
“May I ask a question?” Marty asked, timidly. “How long does it take before I would... fade out?”   
Jennifer looked at Doc, who shrugged. “I can’t be sure” he said. “I have never experienced such a situation before. However, looking at the rate the photograph has been fading thus far, I’d say it’s an accelerating progress. And considering the fact that Jennifer has told me your parents kissed for the first time tonight, you might not last another hour.”   
As Marty visibly paled (again), Jennifer felt the need to comfort him. “Well, you’re not going to fade within a minute” she said. “From the photograph, I’d say you still have some time. And this crisis could be resolved fairly easily if George and Lorraine go to the dance.”   
“I...see” Marty replied. “In that case, I’d like to say goodbye to Lorraine first, before giving her to George. In private.”   
Jennifer frowned. “We’re not going to leave right away” she pointed out. “Well, we are, but wouldn’t it be more sensible to say goodbye after your existence is ensured? It just sounds a bit dangerous to me.”   
“It might be” Marty admitted. “But it’s something I really want to do. I don’t mean to say goodbye to Lorraine just because I’m leaving... but if we have to break up, I want to do it in private.” He smiled. “It might sound a bit silly, I know, but that’s how I feel about this.”   
“I suppose that’s all right” Jennifer said. “If Lorraine agrees, of course, and if you’ll keep it short. Remember, your existence is at stake.”   
“Like I’d ever forget that” Marty muttered. He walked off, Lorraine following him. Doc took the opportunity to also excuse himself, as he still had some preparation work to do at the Square. Jennifer barely heard him, her focus entirely on Marty. Although she did think she had convinced him and Lorraine, she was still terrified the situation wouldn’t work out. Despite all she had experienced with him the last week, she still loved Marty – and she hated the thought of him being erased from existence. She just hoped they would return soon. Sighing, she turned to George to say her own good-bye.


	17. Saying Goodbye

**17: Chapter Seventeen**   


November 12, 1955  
09:30 PM PST  
Hill Valley, California  


Lorraine sighed nervously, as she was walking into the secluded park next to the High School Gym. An offshoot of Hill Valley Park, it was usually a relatively quiet area, and thus it was probably the best spot to say her farewell to Marty McFly.  
Though she wasn’t looking at him, still reluctant to face the boy she now knew to be her future son, Marty eventually came to a halt himself and turned to her. Lorraine looked up, and they stared into each other’s eyes for a while.  
“Well” she finally muttered. “I guess this is goodbye.”  
Marty frowned. “You mean, you believe what they said?” he asked, his voice wavering. “About... us, and all?”  
Lorraine shrugged. “I suppose it’s pretty hard to deny, with all the evidence they’ve given us” she replied, staring at the photograph of Marty. “I don’t like it one bit either, but it’s the truth. Don’t you believe it, then?”  
Marty sighed. “I wish I didn’t” he muttered. “I can’t really believe it, either. Even if my mind says all their evidence is convincing enough...” He took her hand. “We’re so happy together. How could our relationship possibly be wrong?”  
Lorraine saw tears were entering his eyes, and in an impulse, she embraced him. Marty returned the gesture, and they held each other for a while. “I still can’t believe I’m going to have to choose George over you” Lorraine whispered. “George is... well, he’s not as much of a wimp as I thought at first, but I still couldn’t compare him favourably to you.”  
“Thanks, I guess” Marty replied. “Lorraine, I... I’m sure Jennifer wouldn’t approve of this, but can I... can I kiss you? One last time?”  
Lorraine looked into his adorable slate-blue eyes and smiled. “I’m sure she wouldn’t even approve of us hugging” she whispered. “Well, I say that since she’s the one to force us apart, she’s not entitled to say anything unless we agree to it.” Smiling mischievously, she added: “So I wouldn’t worry.”  
Marty grinned and leaned forward to kiss her. Lorraine returned the kiss and they held each other tightly, stroking backs, curling tongues and ruffling hair. She realized to her shock that this was the last time they were going to kiss as lovers. She would probably get a chance to kiss Marty again, but by that point, he would be her son.  
As she ended the kiss and relayed those thoughts to Marty, his face rapidly turned sour. “I guess you’re right” he muttered. “At least you’re going to have thirty years to adjust to the idea. For me, it’ll happen overnight.”  
“I suppose” Lorraine said. “I hope George will be able to help me with that – and that Jennifer will help you, of course.” She sighed. “I hope my relationship with George will end up working out. Punching Biff out is a step in the right direction to more confidence, but from what I’ve seen of him, it will be an uphill struggle.”  
“Yeah, it’ll probably be tough” Marty agreed. “I wish I could help you with that, but I guess I won’t see you again for the next thirty years. At least Jennifer seems to be nice enough, now that I’ve gotten over my initial prejudice to her – even if she’s nothing like you.”  
Lorraine smiled. “You’re so sweet, Marty. I do hope the two of you end up being happy together – although that will be difficult if you don’t get over your amnesia problems.”  
Marty groaned. “That will be an issue” he agreed. “I’ll have a hard time resuming my life in the ‘80s if I know nothing about it. At least you will be there, and Jennifer, and George, and Dr. Brown.” He smiled sheepishly. “Just one thing I must ask you – don’t try to ignore young me after he’s born. I know it’ll be hard facing, uh, him, knowing that he’ll be me one day... but I don’t want to grow up unloved by my future mother.”  
Lorraine nodded, kissing Marty on the cheek. “Of course” she whispered. “Now or in the future, I’ll only want the best for you.”  
Marty nodded, and lightly kissed her on the lips. They kissed for a few seconds before parting and ending their embrace. As Lorraine was about to walk back, Marty offered her his arm. “I feel like a bride’s father guiding his daughter to the altar” he muttered.  
Lorraine chuckled at the irony, and nodded. She took Marty’s arm, and together they walked back to the group. 

oooooooo

George McFly sighed nervously, as he was staring at Jennifer. Although he hadn’t been impacted quite as much as the others by the revelation of the time machine, he was still stunned. The mere thought that time travel was possible was a strange one, but the idea that he would have to marry Lorraine Baines someday...  
And of course, there was the fact that his friend, Jennifer Parker, was really from the future. She was currently standing at the edge of the clearance, looking after Doctor Brown, who had just taken off with the time machine. George was staring at her, and at some point she must have noticed, because she walked up to him. “Do you think you can cope with this?” she asked.  
“It’ll be tough” George admitted. “Granted, marrying Lorraine isn’t exactly a dystopian scenario to me. Still – I’m not sure whether I could do it. I mean, Lorraine doesn’t actually like me.”  
“She didn’t when she was still dating Marty” Jennifer admitted. “But I think she’ll change her point of view on you now. You saved her, remember?”  
“I _helped_ save her” George corrected. “Marty did a lot of the work. But yeah, you’re probably right – but still, even if she got over her initial dislike of me, I’m still horribly nervous about this whole thing. I mean, liking me isn’t the same as loving me – and that’s not the same as marrying me.”  
“I know” Jennifer muttered. “If I heard I was going to have to marry Marty in the future – well, it wouldn’t be horrifying to me either, but the thought would creep me out. It completely eliminates free will.”  
“Even though we did _choose_ to marry in another world, right?” George asked. “The one Marty and you came from.”  
“Very good” Jennifer complimented. “Yeah, that’s right. Although in that world, Lorraine felt sorry for you – which is an entirely different thing from how she’s likely to feel now. Anyway, I hope you’ll end up being happy together, even after all this.”  
“We pretty much have to” George muttered. “Well, I suppose it’ll mostly depend on Lorraine. Do you really think she could end up liking me, Jennifer?”  
“Of course I do” Jennifer replied, hugging him and impulsively giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. George was startled, but he did hug her back. “You’re a great guy” Jennifer continued. “A bit shy, sure, but you’re nice, clever, and you’re not Biff. That, if anything, would be a very big bonus point. And you’ve gained some confidence now.”  
“That’s right” George confirmed. “I’m not sure I can keep it though. What if tomorrow, Biff comes walking up to me and he says that I have to go back to doing his homework – and I still won’t be able to say no?”  
“Well, Doc’s always told me that if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything” Jennifer said, letting go of him. “And Lorraine will probably help you.” She sighed. “Granted, Doc would not really agree with making you more confident, since he’s determined the timeline should remain the way it was originally. Still, I don’t think that giving you confidence is something that can, or should, be reversed.”  
George smiled. “Well, at least someone’s got faith in me” he muttered. “I think I’ll need that in the times to come.”  
“Thank you – although I’m sure Lorraine will come to like and respect you as well, like I already said” Jennifer said. “But you can ask her yourself. There are Marty and Lorraine right now.”  
George blushed nervously as he saw them approaching. Jennifer, sensing that, took his hand and so they stood as Marty and Lorraine walked up to them. To his amusement, George noticed that they were also holding hands. Lorraine then extended her hand, and George took it. Simultaneously, he let go of Jennifer’s hand. Lorraine did the same to Marty a second later, who walked over to him and awkwardly patted George’s shoulder.  
“I’ve got to admit, I’m not entirely happy yet that the situation ended this way” he said. “But I hope you’re happy together. Do take good care of her, okay?”  
“Okay” George replied, shyly. He looked at Lorraine, who was smiling nervously at him.  
“Are you guys ready to go to the dance now?” Jennifer asked. “Sorry to get you under pressure, but this shouldn’t be delayed.”  
“I know” Lorraine said. “All right, I guess we’re off then.”  
“I’ll stay here, if you don’t mind” Marty announced. “I’m... uncomfortable. At the idea of seeing you dance. And I’m not feeling too well either.”  
Jennifer frowned. “You won’t have to look” she pointed out. “And I feel uncomfortable at the thought of leaving you alone. Especially if you’re not feeling well.”  
Marty shook his head. “I can’t let you be there if I get erased from existence” he said. “I have no idea what it’s like, but I guess it’d be an extremely painful process... and I just don’t want anyone to watch that.”  
“I understand, Marty” Jennifer replied sympathetically. “But I want to be there for you. Even if you pull through it. I know I won’t be able to relate to you, but at least I can try. And I think that’s better than nothing.”  
Marty sighed. “All right” he muttered. He slowly started to walk after George and Lorraine towards the dance floor, Jennifer at his side. George felt sorry for the boy who would be his future son if all turned out well, but he reminded himself that standing there and feeling sorry for him wouldn’t help out Marty either – to the contrary. Instead, he would have to focus on his duty.


	18. In Which Marty's Existence Is At Stake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Interesting note: I started writing this chapter from Marty's perspective originally, but the second part of the segment, from Marty beginning to erase on (yes, spoiler, sorry) was always Jennifer's, so I rewrote it to be fully Jennifer's chapter by revising a few paragraphs. The original replacements for the first three paragraphs would be as follows: 
> 
> Marty McFly groaned, as he looked up at the dance floor. Despite his efforts otherwise, he kept looking at one thing in particular – George and Lorraine dancing. His former girlfriend was dancing slowly and surely, and as he closed his eyes, Marty could try to imagine it was him holding Lorraine in his arms and waltzing across the dance floor with her.   
> But of course, there was one thing more important than the girl he would never have again – and rightfully so - and that was the strong stomach pains he was feeling. One look at the photograph Jennifer had given him gave the reason. His apparent sister had disappeared, and now his own portrait wasn’t looking very healthy anymore either.

**18: Chapter Eighteen**

November 12, 1955  
09:40 PM PST

Jennifer Parker smiled, as she was staring at the dance floor. George and Lorraine were slowly dancing together, nervous for sure, but there was a clear mutual attraction visible between them. And why shouldn’t there be? Lorraine made a pretty figure in her dress, and as for George, well, from Jennifer’s point of view, his occasional smiles and nervousness looked kind of adorable.   
Marty, who was standing – or rather, leaning against the wall – next to her, didn’t seem to share that opinion. He was staring uneasily at George and Lorraine, and occasionally closed his eyes dreamily, presumably imagining that it was him holding Lorraine in his arms and waltzing across the dance floor with her.   
As it was, though, there was one thing more important, even to Marty McFly, and that was the picture of his family Jennifer had given him, and the strong stomach pains he was experiencing. She could see him wincing every time they hit, before taking a look at the photograph. It now depicted Linda as fully gone, while Marty’s reflection was looking increasingly faint. No wonder he was experiencing these attacks.   
Jennifer looked at him with sympathy, and anxiously stared back at the dance floor. “I don’t get it” she muttered. “They’re together, right? Shouldn’t the photograph start being restored? The way it’s going now, it’s more like the situation is worsening.”   
“Well, they still have to kiss” Marty pointed out. “I get what you mean, though. We’re so near to that point – shouldn’t the universe be willing to cut me a break by now? It’s not like I haven’t given a sacrifice, after all.”   
Jennifer sighed, and sat down next to him – Marty probably hadn’t even noticed he’d moved from a standing position into a sitting one. Both of them were staring at George and Lorraine despite attempts to avoid it, filled with one thought – when would George finally summon the guts to kiss her?   
However, as they were thinking that, the couple’s peacefulness was suddenly disrupted as a red-haired kid walked up, roughly shoved George out of the way, and started dancing with Lorraine. A miserable George started to walk away, looking down. Marty and Jennifer exchanged glances, horrified.   
“He needs to do something!” Marty hissed. “Jennifer, go up and tell him that!”   
“I’m not sure he’ll listen to me” Jennifer muttered. “He’s probably terrified at the mere thought of walking back.”   
Marty groaned. “Just what we needed. He can lay out Biff, but he can’t even stand up to that clown Dixon!”  
Jennifer frowned and was about to protest against Marty’s insulting of his future father, but didn’t when her boyfriend instead emitted a low groan. He stared at his hand in horror, and Jennifer could see he was looking through it.   
“Marty!” she called out, horrified. She took Marty’s other hand and held an arm around his shoulder. The poor boy was bending over in pain, clearly struggling to manage as much as breathing and sitting up. “Don’t die!”   
“I... I’m afraid... afraid I can’t do much to stop it” Marty replied, wincing. His back gave way and he leaned back onto the ground, and Jennifer stared at him. The prospect of erasure had been a horrifying one earlier in the week, but then it was still abstract. Now, however, it was extremely real. A thought popped into her mind – _at least he’s dying at my side rather than at Lorraine’s_ – but she discarded it right away. Rival or no rival, she would have gladly seen Marty spend the rest of his life married to Lorraine if it would have meant he’d _live_.   
Looking up for a moment, Jennifer’s eyes suddenly met George’s. Her sort-of pupil, who had approached her, still looked miserable, but as he realized the pain Marty was in, he suddenly turned as horrified as she was.   
“George” Jennifer croaked. “Please, _do_ something!”   
George remained undecided. Besides her, Jennifer could hear Marty’s heartbeat speeding up. His eyes were motionless, gazing at the ceiling, his hands had disappeared, and his arms had become transparent. Something had to be done fast.   
George, too, stared at Marty, then at Jennifer, and finally, albeit reluctantly, he nodded. He turned around, took a deep breath, and walked up to Dixon and Lorraine.   
Their conversation didn’t last long. When Dixon turned to George, Jennifer could see the arrogance in his face and wished desperately that she could slam it out of him. However, George was faster. In another quick display of his left hook, he managed to punch Dixon out. Lorraine and Jennifer gasped at the sight.   
“Good... one... George...” Marty groaned, gathering all the strength he had left in him to look up and utter those words. Jennifer turned to him, and they looked at each other for a few seconds before Marty’s head hit the ground again. Jennifer found herself now looking through him.   
“No!” she whispered. “Marty... please!” She tried to hug him, but failed. “Don’t... don’t die...”   
Suddenly, Marty blinked. Jennifer frowned, and noticed Marty’s gone limbs reappearing. She gasped, hesitant to believe it. “Marty?”   
The teen nodded, and sat up. They stared at each other for a brief moment, and then Jennifer hugged him tightly. Marty awkwardly hugged her back, but she realized that he was solid as ever again. Behind him, she saw the photograph lying on the ground and noticed that all three McFly kids had been restored to it.   
The reason for that became apparent as she looked over her shoulder. George and Lorraine were kissing passionately on the dance floor, all the while slowly continuing to dance. Jennifer sighed with relief. At last – at last she had some hope for the future again. 

oooooooo

Their saying goodbye went unexpectedly quick. As it turned out, much had already been resolved between George and Jennifer and between Marty and Lorraine during their previous conversation, and thus after a few brief words in which Jennifer told George to remember the good lessons she’d given him, they left... or at least, they’d intended to. Marty’s parents, however, insisted on dropping them off at the Square, and thus Marty and Jennifer were persuaded to go along with them in the Baines car. They did manage to arrive at 9:55 that way, something which nevertheless annoyed Doc.   
“You’re late!” he called out, scolding Jennifer in particular. “Don’t you have any concept of time?”   
“Well, we did have a rather serious situation going on” Jennifer pointed out. “Aren’t you happy we managed to resolve it?”   
The inventor grumbled. “All right, all right” he muttered. “Come on. We still need to set your Destination Time.”   
“Doctor Brown?” Lorraine spoke up. “Um, do you mind if we watch? Seeing someone time travel... by _lightning bolt_ , of all things... sounds fairly spectacular.”   
“I hope it won’t be, because ‘spectacular’ mostly means that it will take us more effort” Doc said. “But why not, you already know about the time machine after all. Just stand back and try not to disrupt anything.”   
Lorraine and George nodded, and George managed to park the car while Lorraine moved into position at a shop on the other side of the road. Jennifer noticed Marty’s eyes drawing to her for a moment, but they soon returned to the matter at hand as they walked towards the DeLorean. Doc opened the gull-wing door and pointed at the time circuits. “You left at October 26th 1985, 1:35 AM” he informed them. “If we set the Destination Time to match the Last Time Departed, it’ll be like you never left.” He reset the upper readout, and Jennifer could see the two readouts matched now.   
“Right, got it” she replied.   
“I painted a white line on the street _waay_ over there” Doc said. “That’s where you start from. Jennifer, you just drive the DeLorean accelerating to eighty-eight miles per hour towards the cables over the street, starting at the moment this alarm clock goes off, and everything should turn out fine.”   
“I sure hope it will” Jennifer replied. Suddenly frowning, she added: “And with you, too. Don’t forget about the terrorists who will try to shoot you in 1985.”   
“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget that” Doc replied, as they got out of the time machine. He stared at her. “Well, I guess that’s it. I won’t see you again for another thirty years.”   
Jennifer nodded, and driven by a sudden impulse, she hugged the inventor. Doc was a bit startled, but he returned the hug and patted her back in response. “In about thirty years” he repeated.   
“If all goes well” Jennifer corrected.   
“Don’t worry!” Doc pulled loose of the embrace. “As long as you hit this cable at the precise moment with the connecting hook accelerating at eighty-eight miles per hour, the instant the lightning strikes the tower...” He smiled, pausing for a second. “Everything will be fine.”   
“How big is that chance?” Marty asked, sceptically. Jennifer noticed it was the first time he’d spoken at all since they arrived here.   
“I think it’s quite big” Doc replied. “I’ve checked my calculations several times. As long as the future information Jennifer gave me is accurate, and she starts at the time I planned for her, everything should turn out fine.”   
“Then I hope she will” Marty said, shivering. “I wouldn’t like getting killed when we crash into the theatre.”   
Jennifer frowned at his lack of faith in her, but remembered that to Marty, she might as well have been a stranger. “I’ll do my best” she said. “It’s the only thing I can say. Unless _you_ want to drive, of course... but I don’t think that would be very wise considering your state. No offense, Marty, but physically and emotionally, I think you’re still a bit of a mess right now.”   
Marty nodded, and walked over to the passenger’s seat. After a bit of fiddling with the gull-wing door, he got it open and headed inside. Jennifer, in the meanwhile, exchanged glances with Doc one more time. The inventor noted her worries, and smiled reassuringly. “Don’t worry” he said. “Everything will turn out fine. I’ll make sure of it.”   
Jennifer smiled back. “That’s good to hear” she said. She got to the driver’s side of the car, headed inside and was about to close the door when a sudden lightning bolt flashed near them, cutting off a tree branch which hit the cable. Marty and Jennifer exchanged horrified glances. “Doc!” Jennifer called out. “Are you all right?”   
“I’m fine” Doc replied, “but the cable isn’t!” As Jennifer got out, she could see him staring at the problem. “I’ll have to reconnect the cable to the part near the clock... but I need someone to toss it to me, because I can’t take it along as I climb up to the clock.”   
Jennifer nodded, understanding. “I will...”   
“No, you won’t, Jennifer” Lorraine said, walking over to them. “You’re supposed to leave in a few minutes, and even if you could make it in time after doing this, there’s no need. George and I are here – we can help Dr. Brown out.” Marty nodded vigorously in consent with his ex-girlfriend’s proposal.   
Jennifer sighed. “You’re right, Lorraine” she conceded. “All right, if you think you can handle it...”   
“Sure we can” Lorraine said. “There’s nothing to worry about.” She smiled, an odd sight on the girl who had until tonight been her rival. “Why don’t you and Marty get to the start line. You’ll have plenty of issues yourselves to worry about.”   
Jennifer nodded. “That’s true” she said, softly. After a wave, she got into the car, shut the gullwing door, turned the engine on and slowly turned the DeLorean 180 degrees in the right direction. They then took off towards the start line, leaving the Courthouse Square behind.


	19. Back to the Future

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the new chapter. Deals with... well, I suppose the chapter title says it all.

**19: Chapter Nineteen**

_November 12, 1955_   
_10:01 PM PST_

“Marty, lean back. There’s no reason to worry as long as the alarm clock hasn’t gone off yet.”   
Marty sighed, and stared at Jennifer. “I know” he said. “But I can’t help it. This constant inaction... we’re supposed to catch the lightning bolt, Jennifer. After all that fuss you made about it, I’d gather it would be important to you too.”   
“It is important to me” Jennifer replied, offended. “Very much so. But as long as that clock hasn’t gone off yet, I can’t leave.” She sighed. “And it’s only been a minute since we arrived here.”   
“I know” Marty said, again. “But I’m just worried that something went wrong. After tonight, I want to leave the fifties as soon as possible.”   
Jennifer frowned at that – she’d seen the way he had looked at Lorraine just a few minutes ago, after all – but decided to concentrate on the car and on reassuring her boyfriend. “Everything is all right” she said. “The time circuits are on, the flux capacitor is... is...”   
“Fluxing” Marty suggested.   
“The flux capacitor’s fluxing, the engine is running, there’s nothing to be worried a-”  
She was cut off abruptly by the sound she heard – or rather, she did not. The engine, which had been running smoothly as she said, suddenly stopped. She and Marty exchanged horrified glances, and Jennifer frantically tried to hit the gas and turned the key. “Come on...” she muttered. “Come on, you stupid thing... work! Come on, come on...”   
“It’s not helping” Marty remarked.   
“Then _you_ do something!” Jennifer shouted. “Have you got any ideas?”   
As Marty shook his head, Jennifer went back to her work, half watching the car readouts and half casting hurried glances at the alarm clock. If only it could give her just a few more seconds of peace...   
Unfortunately, it didn’t. The alarm clock rang, and Jennifer felt panic rising within her. Instead of giving in, she doubled her effort. “Come on come on come on please!” she muttered, as she and Marty did everything they could to restart the engine, the latter even taking over the job of twisting the key – but to no avail. Frustrated, Marty hit his head against the steering wheel.   
The next second, the engine was activated. Jennifer’s foot was still on the gas pedal, and the car shot forwards. Jennifer and Marty barely avoided tumbling against the car desk and against each other and exchanged amazed looks for a second before turning back to the road. There was work to be done, after all. 

oooooooo

Doc, George and Lorraine stared after Marty and Jennifer for a few seconds as they drove off. Then Doc turned to the others. “You – any of you – walk up to the clock tower” he said. “I’ll throw this rope down to you, and you’ll simply attach it to the cable so I can tow it up.”   
“You mean you’re going up to the clock?” Lorraine asked, horrified. “That sounds dangerous.” She smiled. “And exciting as well.”   
“Presumably, although I’m not heading up there for excitement” Doc replied. He ran off to the stairs of the clock tower. Lorraine and George exchanged glances, and Lorraine ran over to the bush where the rope had fallen into.   
As it turned out, the rope was stranded under the fallen branch, and it was relatively easy for them to get it loose and run up to the tower. Both of them then stared up to the clock, waiting for Doctor Brown to appear.   
Lorraine let out a small chuckle. Normally, she would have chatted George’s ears off, being excited about the prospect of being involved in such a venture – and, of course, distracting herself from being worried about Marty. (Okay, and Jennifer). Now, however, that was no use – due to the lightning flashing around them, even to talk to George, who was right next to her, she’d have to shout.   
Their acquaintance appeared after just a short waiting period, looking absolutely terrified. Lorraine figured she couldn’t blame him – he was rather high up. Still, he looked somewhat confident at least as he passed the giant lions on both sides of the clock face and got onto the ledge, tightly holding onto the left lion. He then threw down the rope. Lorraine quickly attached it to the cable, and then let go of it so that Dr. Brown could tow it up. She stepped aside, watching anxiously as Doc rapidly towed up the cable.   
As he finished, she and George stepped back and watched as Doc undid the rope from the cable and held it, and then turned towards the other end of the rope which was dangling over the clock face. She grumbled. “I wish I could do something” she muttered.   
“So do I” George replied. “I’m afraid that I can’t, though. Neither of us can do anything but watch.”   
Lorraine nodded, and looked anxiously as Doc stared at the cable with despair, and then, after a hesitation that seemed to last an eternity, cautiously started to move over. However, he hadn’t gotten very far, climbing along the edge of the ledge holding tightly onto the lion, when the clock, which was right behind him, suddenly struck ten.   
For a moment, both of them thought Doc was going to fall off. He didn’t, but he did lose his grip on the ledge and was soon clinging onto the head of the lion for dear life, having a clear shortage of arms as he tried to hold onto the ledge, hold onto the cable end in his hand and cover his ears from the horrible noise at the same time.   
Lorraine was about to run over to catch him when George noticed what she was about to do and shook his head. “It’s no use” he whispered. “We’d never get there in time and even if we did, I doubt we could ease his fall.”   
As Lorraine pondered that, it flashed through her mind that this was another place where rational, cautious George and adventurous, impulsive Marty clearly contrasted. If she’d still been with Marty, she was sure he would have run over before she could even contemplate the thought. Of course, if she had still been with Marty, she wouldn’t have been here at the Square. She’d most likely be still at the dance, slowly dancing with him to a particularly romantic song... on the other hand, wouldn’t he have disappeared by this time? Lorraine shook her head. Time travel combined with ex-boyfriends was confusing, and not the first thing one should contemplate when faced with someone you cared about almost falling to death.   
Fortunately, however, Doc didn’t fall to his death. He managed to swing to the side, and Lorraine noticed to her relief that he regained his hold onto the ledge. After the sound of the clock had faded – and, so Lorraine guessed, damaged his hearing to some extent – he turned back to the other end of the rope, and tried to get it together. However, for some reason, although he was moving towards it, the two pieces of cable wouldn’t connect. After some fruitless tries Doc sighed, frustrated, and turned to Lorraine as the clock turned to 10.01 next to him.   
“LORRAINE! GEORGE!” he shouted.   
Lorraine ran out to face him. “Yeah?!” she shouted back.   
She wasn’t sure if he had heard her – after all, the lightning was still striking around them, and as she’d just noticed, the clock might have damaged his hearing. Indeed, Doc frowned for a moment, then seemed to shake it off and turned back to her, presumably guessing what she’d said. “Can you get that branch off the cable?!” he shouted.   
For a moment, Lorraine was puzzled, but she soon realized what he meant. The tree branch which had been struck by lightning was still lying over the cable, and was pinning it down so that Doc couldn’t get the ends of the cables to meet. “All right!” she shouted back, wondering if he could hear her, and she ran back to the bushes.   
Although she tugged as hard as she could, and George soon realized what she was doing and started to help her, it wasn’t very easy to remove the branch. However, sheer determination helped them and they managed to get the branch, Lorraine almost falling back into the thorny bushes as she did so. George managed to cling to her hand just in time and after she smiled gratefully at him they got out of the bushes and back to the open path. She gave Dr. Brown a thumbs-up, who smiled and easily connected the cables now.   
The cables were fixed, which presented another issue. Dr. Brown stared at the clock, which turned to 10.02, and looked down. Lorraine could guess what he was thinking – should he get down, and perhaps not be in time to see the lightning strike, or stay up? Although Lorraine could see two sides to the issue – if he stayed up, Doc might be able to fix any problems that could arise – but he apparently didn’t, or if he did, he dismissed the negative side. She saw him moving past the lions and disappearing inside.   
“Now what?” George asked. She hadn’t noticed he’d moved so close to her.   
“Now we wait” Lorraine told him, anxiously staring at the exit of the Courthouse.   
Of course, it wasn’t as anxious a wait as it could have been. The cables were solid, and remained solid even when the clock turned to 10.03, one minute before the lightning strike. However, it was still going to be quite a moment. Lorraine certainly didn’t want Doc to miss it, since he had contributed most to it.   
Just when she saw the DeLorean – that was what Jennifer had called it, wasn’t it? – appearing in the distance, Doc exited the building and ran up to him. “Too late?” he asked.   
Lorraine shook her head. “On time” she simply said. The three of them ran over to the street, looking both at the car which was rapidly approaching, and the clock which still said 10.03, but where one could almost imagine the seconds ticking as it moved closer to 10.04. They had done everything they could to prepare the experiment – now it was time to test it.  
Even if some part of Lorraine’s mind had expected disaster to strike at the final moment, she was relieved that it didn’t. As the time machine was racing past them, about to reach the cables, the clock turned to 10.04 and the next moment lightning struck it, permanently stranding it at that very time. Electricity raced down the cables exactly as Doc had predicted it would, and reached the cables over the street the instant the hook touched it. The time machine was covered with light and in a giant explosion of light and sound it vanished, leaving two fire trails behind. The shock of the blast sent all three of them back a few steps, although it wasn’t as intense as it could have been had they been closer.   
George, Lorraine and Doc exchanged glances. “It worked” Doc muttered. “It really worked.” He smiled broadly.   
“You bet it did” George muttered. “Wow. That was _great_. Don’t you think so, Lorraine?”   
“Uh, yeah” Lorraine replied. She didn’t want to admit that at that very moment, she had in fact been pondering what would have happened if the car had missed the strike. It would have gone on, heading towards the building in front of it still going at eighty-eight miles per hour. Although that would have been a big blow, Lorraine knew the Theater wasn’t extremely sturdy. Marty and Jennifer would probably have survived. And that would have stranded them in 1955 permanently... a concept Lorraine knew somewhere deep down she wouldn’t have disliked. If Marty and she couldn’t be lovers, then at least they could have been contemporaries and good friends. Of course, she supposed that they would have become even better friends if Jennifer had died in the crash, because then Marty wouldn’t have had a girlfriend anymore and Lorraine would have been the only person he could cling to, and they could have been close again... it would almost be like having two boyfriends... George as the official one, the one she’d be marrying, and Marty as her lover...   
She suddenly shook her head, horrified. It was bad enough that she was thinking of what would have happened if the car had missed the bolt as a good thing, but Jennifer _dying_? Even during the past week when she’d all but _loathed_ Jennifer Parker, she hadn’t wished anything like this on her, and certainly not now. She shook her head thoroughly. While the thoughts she’d entertained had kind of appealed to her adventurous side, if Jennifer had to die for it she’d pass up the opportunity.   
And anyway, it wasn’t like there was an opportunity at all. Marty and Jennifer had returned to the future, and there was nothing to be done about that. Looking at George and Doc indicated that. The inventor was still smiling, but it was a bittersweet smile – he, like her, must have been pondering the thought that Marty and Jennifer were now gone forever – or rather, ‘forever’ meaning thirty years.   
If he was, though, he recovered from it pretty soon. “Well” he said. “I hope you don’t mind, but can you help me fix all this? I’d better take everything down before returning home. We can’t have anyone noticing in the morning.”   
As George nodded, Lorraine took one moment to deliberate, staring at the flames for a few seconds, remembering Marty. Then, she ripped her face away from them, took George’s hand in hers, and turned to Doc. “Yes” she said. “I’d love to help you out.”


	20. The Future Ain't What It Used To Be

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the update. Ends on a cliffhanger. Oh, and the title is a reference to a Kristen Sheley fanfic with the same name.

**20\. Chapter Twenty**

October 26, 1985  
01:35 AM PDT  
Hill Valley, California

The time machine returned to the future with a spectacular sound of three sonic booms shattering through the town streets in rapid succession. Marty and Jennifer soon found that though they had skipped thirty years of time, they hadn’t lost any speed, and thus they were still headed at eighty-eight miles per hour in the same direction – right towards the town theater.  
Only quick maneuvering managed to save them from anything more than a limited crash, and thus Jennifer was able to pull out of the theater and reverse the DeLorean down the streets. Only when they were roughly in front of the Courthouse again did she halt, and stare at Marty.  
“Did we make it?” Marty asked, wondering whether or not he should feel curious about this – he didn’t remember living in 1985, but he knew it was his home time period.  
“We should have” Jennifer replied. “The time circuits say it’s 1985, and when I look around…” She opened the gull-wing door and stared around the town square. “Yup, 1985.”  
“So, what’s next?” Marty asked.  
“Well, Doc was at the mall when I – when we left this time period” Jennifer said. “So he should still be there now. On the other hand, if he took my warning about the terrorists… he might not be there at all.”  
“Then where else should we look for him?” Marty asked.  
“At home” Jennifer said. “At his garage. But on the other hand, he might be performing this experiment somewhere else… or maybe he’s already done it… or still has to…” She groaned. “Time travel gives me a headache.”  
“Same here” Marty said. “He’s probably still doing the experiment now, though. Otherwise, how could we ever have gotten to the presen – er, to 1955 in the first place?”  
Jennifer shrugged. “I don’t know” she admitted. “Let’s go to the mall first. If Doc’s not there, we’ll check his house – and if he’s not there, there’ll still be time to panic.”  
Marty grinned. “Suits me” he said.  
Jennifer smiled and started the engine – or at least, she tried to start it. As it turned out, the engine stalled immediately, and just wouldn’t turn on again. “Oh, great” she muttered. “Come on, you stupid thing…”  
“Relax, Jennifer” Marty said. “You’re getting way too frustrated about this. I’m sure Doc’ll understand if it takes us a while to look him up.”  
Jennifer frowned at that, not really eager to keep their friend waiting, but she realized Marty did have a point. Nevertheless, she wanted the car fixed as soon as possible. She tried to hit the steering wheel again, but it didn’t work. A few frustrated attempts to kick other parts didn’t work either. “Gah! Why did he have to build a time machine out of a DeLorean, of all things!”  
Marty shrugged. “How should I know?” he asked. “I’ve barely met the guy. Can I lend you a hand?”  
Jennifer frowned at him. “I thought you had amnesia.”  
“I do, but I might be able to fix the car anyway” Marty insisted. “I’ve just got this feeling that it’ll work. So, unless you want to keep trying…”  
Jennifer shook her head. “No, you’ve probably got a point. Go ahead.” They got out of the car and switched places, and Marty started working on the time machine’s engine.  
As she stared at him, Jennifer found herself leaning back into her chair. They were going to be here for a while yet. 

oooooooo

They would indeed take a while, but not as long as Jennifer had presumed. After spending ten minutes carefully analyzing the problem, Marty had fixed the car – she wasn’t sure how he did it, but he had – and managed to drive it out of the Square. Using the directions he got from Jennifer, he got them over to the mall – which, as Jennifer noticed, was now named ‘Lone Pine Mall’. She chuckled, remembering how Marty had run over that pine tree – a week ago, thirty years ago, but emotionally so long ago because it was before the ‘mess with Lorraine’ as she called it had started.  
As they parked the car in the lot, Jennifer noticed Doc’s van and the bus of the Libyan terrorists, the latter of which was crashed into a phone booth, and began to worry for a moment. However, those concerns were soon removed as the van door opened and Doc Brown got out. He walked over to them and frowned.  
“You certainly took your time in getting here” he said. “I was about to leave.”  
“We had some troubles with the engine” Jennifer said, opening the gull-wing door and staring at him. “It’s good to see you again, Doc – Dr. Brown.”  
Doc frowned, but then shrugged and smiled nevertheless. “Same here, Jennifer, Marty. If you only knew how hard it’s been for me all these years…”  
Jennifer chuckled. “I can imagine.” She frowned. “How did you save yourself, by the way? If the Libyans and your van are still here, I’d say that the experiment still happened the way it did… but you’re alive!”  
“You saw that right” Doc replied. He ripped his jacket open, and revealed a bullet-proof vest. “I couldn’t have stopped this any other way, since the Libyans were going to need to chase you. Otherwise, you would have never gotten back to 1955 in the first place, in turn causing a time paradox, and you wouldn’t want to know what problems that could cause.”  
“Actually, I believe you explained it to me in ’55 – and from what I recall, it didn’t sound pretty” Jennifer agreed. “So, what do we do now? Go home?”  
“For you, that would seem the wisest option” Doc said. “For Marty… well, I’m not sure it would. He’s lost his memory, hasn’t he?”  
“Hey, I’m standing right here!” Marty called out, somewhat frustrated. Softer, he added: “I get what you mean, though. I’m not up to facing all these unfamiliar people I never met before… or at least whom I don’t recall ever meeting before. Especially not this late at night.”  
“That’s what I thought” Doc said. “If you don’t mind, you can sleep at my house. I won’t be there, of course, but I’ll give you the key to the lock so you can sleep alone there.”  
“That’ll be a change” Marty muttered. Jennifer frowned at that, but didn’t say anything – best for them to forget Marty’s fling with Lorraine as soon as possible. And she did have another question anyway. “Where are you going, then?”  
“The future” Doc said, smiling. “I just told you half an hour ago, but I guess that must have been a matter of days for you. Thirty years into the future. To see what 2015 will be like is a dream coming true for me.”  
“I thought you told us you were going to 2010… twenty-five years ahead” Jennifer vaguely recalled. Doc nodded. “I guess you changed your mind because we went to ’55 and that’s thirty years into the past, right?”  
“That’s right” Doc replied. “But why don’t we load the car into the van, and then we can talk in there.”  
Jennifer nodded, and they did just that. She drove the car into the van, frightening Einstein out of his wits – she felt bad for the poor dog, but figured that it wasn’t worse than seeing your owner get shot by terrorists. Afterwards, she went towards the front of the van, where Doc and Marty were already involved in some kind of argument.  
“I understand your point, Marty,” Doc was saying, “but it’s really not something you’ll decide overnight. You are tired, and you need some rest. Deep down, you really don’t want to do this. Not now.”  
“What’s this about?” Jennifer asked, getting in and closing the door behind her.  
“Marty wants to come with me” Doc replied, starting the engine and driving the van away from the mall. “I ordinarily wouldn’t have problems with that, but I know he needs his rest. And even if he goes to the future with me, where we could theoretically spend all the time we want, he couldn’t and shouldn’t postpone meeting up with his parents for all eternity.” He turned to Marty. “It’s better if you do it tomorrow. Get it over with.”  
“I doubt there’s any chance of not getting it over with” Marty retorted. “You’re driving the car, right? You can decide when we go home again. I don’t get why I can’t just see the wonders of the future first before going there. Perhaps I’ll even get my memory back.” He hit the side of the car with frustration. “I’m not ready to face my… my mom again.”  
Doc sighed. “Jenny, you tell him – or at least, try to get it into his brain – that if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.”  
“Right, Doc – wait, did you just call me Jenny?” Jennifer stared at him, her eyes wide. “Since when do you call me Jenny?”  
“Since… always?” Doc replied, frowning. “I’ve been calling you that at least for two years. Not all the time, of course, as I mostly call you Jennifer, but… often enough. It started not long after we met, in fact.”  
“Now, wait, Doc” Jennifer said. “You’ve never, once, called me Jenny. I mean, I don’t really mind you doing so, but…” She shrugged. “It’s not like we’re incredibly close. I’m just Marty’s girlfriend, after all.”  
Doc stared at her with a strange look on his face, one that slowly changed into an even stranger look – the one of a man who begins to realize something but doesn’t want to. “Great Scott” he whispered. He then slammed on the brakes.  
“Hey!” Marty called out. “What’s going on here, anyway?”  
“I’m sorry, Marty, but I’m afraid that you wouldn’t know” Doc replied, parking the car on the side of the road. “There’s just a glaring suspicion I had… or perhaps I know it. I think that somewhere, I’ve always known it, ever since 1955 and that fateful week. I just didn’t fully realize it until it was too late…”  
“You’ve always known what?” Jennifer asked, frustrated because she wasn’t getting what was up.  
Doc stared at her. “Jennifer, Marty… there’s something I’ve got to tell you. And I’m afraid that you – especially Jennifer – won’t like it.” He sighed, before adding: “At all.”


	21. Long Explanations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter, et cetera. Marty and Jennifer get some explanations. Kind of long-winded, but necessary. Hope you enjoy nevertheless.

**21: Chapter Twenty-One**

October 26, 1985  
01:45 AM PDT  
Hill Valley, California

Jennifer Parker stared at Doc, who had just uttered those words. She could see he was reluctant to speak up, but this wasn’t helping. If there was something he needed to tell them, or rather, her… well, it might be best to do it right away. “So,” she said, “what’s the deal?”   
Doc answered her question with one in return. “Jennifer, would you mind telling me how we met? That is, how Marty and I met, and how you and I met.”   
Jennifer’s frown got deeper. “You know that, Doc…”   
“No, I don’t.” Doc sighed and stared at her. “Humor me, will you? Besides, Marty doesn’t know it.”   
“I don’t care!” Marty snapped. “I don’t get why I should hear all this in the middle of the night! There ought to be some other, better time for this.”   
“I’m sorry for exposing you to this then, but I can’t take Jennifer home until we resolve this issue” Doc replied. “And besides, weren’t you just saying that you wanted to come along with me to the future?”   
Marty was about to reply to that, when he caught Jennifer’s glance towards him. Staring at each other, they both realized that the swiftest way to get this over with was to cave in. “All right” Jennifer muttered. “Doc, you and Marty met in 1975, when Marty was seven. Marty was walking home from school, when Douglas Needles – he’s a local bully of some sorts, well, not really a bully, but more of a nuisance – challenged Marty to a skateboard race. Marty refused the dare, and Needles had his gang throw him into the trunk of a car. You found him shortly thereafter, released him, and you’ve been friends ever since.”   
“Interesting” Doc responded. “Go on, tell me more.”   
Jennifer eyed him reluctantly, but continued. “Over the next few years, you and Marty became closer friends. Marty helped you out in the garage, you helped him out with his homework, and you were best friends when Marty and I met – that was in June of 1982.”   
“June 2nd, 1982?” Doc asked, softly.   
Jennifer nodded. “Marty introduced me to you after a few weeks, and I came over once in a while. But we didn’t spend all that much time together, and whenever I came around, it was with Marty. And this was the first time I actually attended one of your experiments.”   
“Interesting” Doc replied. “So, to summarize, in the reality you’re from we were acquaintances, rather than friends?”   
“That would be a good way to say it” Jennifer replied. She still didn’t entirely understand what Doc was getting at, but the information was beginning to make itself clear. “Wait… are you telling me that we were friends – _are_ friends in this… world?”   
“It appears to be so” Doc said. “Jennifer, I’m afraid neither of us _really_ comprehended what changes to the continuum we might cause because of this alternate timeline. You thought – and so did I – that everything would be fixed once we got Marty’s parents back together.”   
“You mean it isn’t?” Marty asked, thinking he grasped that much at least. “Am I going to disappear again?”   
“No, I don’t think you have to worry about that, Marty” Doc said. “You have an other self in this reality, and he was sent back to 1955 with the other Jennifer by the same method you were, so no part of your past has been endangered. Your existence is, as far as I know, secure, but the exact nature of that existence might be different. The temporal event sequence that has now been created diverges radically from the original version as it occurred prior to your temporal jump transposing thirty years.”   
“English, Doc!” Marty and Jennifer replied, simultaneously.   
Doc sighed. “I’d best try to explain from the start. From 1955 on, this timeline has been different from the one you left due to the changes you made during that fateful week. For instance, Jennifer, in the process of getting Marty’s parents back together, you informed them – both of them – that time travel existed. So after you two got sent back, they were, besides me, the only ones aware of that fact, and of the fact that they were going to have Marty as a child.”   
“I get that” Jennifer said. “Is that important?”   
“It certainly is” Doc said. “Because due to that, I rapidly became friends with George and Lorraine – first because they wanted to know everything I hadn’t told them yet about Marty and you, and then because we just got along well. Especially George and I bonded over our mutual interest in science and science fiction, and that friendship continued after their marriage. They came over regularly to see how the time machine works were coming along. And when my mansion burned down in 1962, I stayed with them for several weeks. I was reluctant to take them up on that offer, but I accepted it as I didn’t know whether the mansion had burned down in your reality too. If it hadn’t, I might desperately need their financial support for building the time machine now that my house had fallen away and I would need to find a new one, not to mention replacing lots of things that had been lost in the fire. .” Doc smiled fondly, remembering those days. “I even became an unofficial uncle to their eldest, Dave, who was born around that time. And I just narrowly avoided being his godfather.”   
“Your mansion did burn down in our reality” Jennifer said, breathing heavily. “Now I get what you mean, Doc. So, what else is, uh, new?”   
“I stayed friends with George and Lorraine throughout the sixties, even after I moved back into my garage” Doc said. “I fortunately managed to talk them out of helping me buy a house – I wouldn’t want to be that much of a drain on their finances, and I was doing well in my garage. Anyway, there wasn’t any time Marty and I first met in this time period – well, unless you count me being invited to see the baby a few hours after his birth. I was friends with George and Lorraine and all of their kids, and my relationship with Marty didn’t become stronger than the one I had with the others until about 1976.”   
“Heavy” Marty muttered. “And I thought it was bad not knowing a guy whose friend I’m supposed to have been for ten years. Now you’ve known me all my life.”   
“Time travel is very peculiar sometimes, indeed” Doc acknowledged. “Anyway, in 1982, as I also mentioned before, you two met and fell in love. Marty introduced me to you shortly thereafter, Jennifer… and that must have been when I overreacted.”   
“Overreacted?” Jennifer repeated.   
“It had been twenty-seven years since our last meeting, but I still recalled how close I had felt to you” Doc replied, somewhat struggling with his words – an unusual sight on him. “Jennifer, I don’t know how to explain, but although I never found a nice girl to live with, I have, somewhere in my mind, always wanted to be a father. And that moment, in 1955, when I comforted you after you had that first fatal encounter with Marty, when you tried to tell him when he was from…”   
“Hey!” Marty exclaimed. “That was no ‘fatal encounter’. I _certainly_ didn’t kill anyone!”   
“Sorry, Marty, but you did hurt me, so it did feel that way to me, at least somewhat” Jennifer said. “I understand you didn’t mean it, well, you did, but you didn’t know…” She turned back to Doc. “You were saying what?”   
“That one moment must have changed something inside me” Doc said, softly. “Anyway, when we met in 1982, I knew somewhere I wanted to have that closeness again. To have a… a daughter, again. I could feel that more than with Marty, as due to the different nature of our relationship, Marty and I hadn’t developed such a father/son-like bond as we had in your reality. It was very odd, both for me, for George and Lorraine, and of course for you two as you didn’t know. I was better friends with Marty until that time, but I _felt_ like I should be closer to you, Jennifer – after all, our friendship dated from 1955, while I barely met Marty during that week.”   
“Right” Jennifer replied, starting to see the picture.   
Doc sighed. “Anyway, as I said, I overreacted. Every time I saw Marty from then on, I told him to invite you, that is the other Jennifer, along next time. I tried spending time with you, sometimes alone, so that you’d start seeing me as a bit of a father figure again. I started helping you with your homework, like with Marty, and when your Dad wouldn’t take you to the cinema, I would. So eventually, I got that closeness with you back… and that’s why I called you Jenny just now. The other you was used to it.”   
Jennifer shook her head in desorientation. “So, I’m like your second best friend now?”   
“I’m afraid there’s more to it” Doc said. “My attempts to build a friendship with you annoyed Marty – and I can hardly blame him. Marty’s other self had been my friend for several years, and to see me ignore him suddenly over his girlfriend… well, he had his words to say about that. It got worse, though, when I started viewing you, Jennifer, as my primary friend… partly because, as I said, I had some difficulties getting along with Marty. That was around late 1983. So, my relationship with Marty, and in turn your relationship with Marty, got a bit difficult.”   
“Anyway, it all eventually spilled over. I believe it was in March of 1984 when the two of you got into a fight about it. Marty came along on an appointment he and I had made, partly to patch things up, but scatterbrained me had already made an appointment with Jennifer. So, the three of us met at the same time. Well, to say Marty was angry with me was an understatement – after all, this night had been intended as a ‘boys’ night’, specifically meaning _without_ you. Marty started hurling insults at me, I started hurling them back, and at some point he made some fairly insulting remarks about the nature of my relationship with Jennifer.”   
Jennifer froze. “I get what you mean” she replied, remembering how _some_ people had done the same about Doc and Marty in the old world.   
“Why would I do something like that?” Marty said, shocked. “I mean, if I was your friend…”   
“To be fair, you were very angry at that point, so I gathered you didn’t really mean it” Doc said. “And it was kind of my fault anyway, both for inviting you both at the same time and for getting too close to Jennifer in the first place when I should have figured that you were supposed to be my best friend, not she. Anyway, Jennifer got angry at you after that, and the relationship just deteriorated from there. Two weeks later, you broke up.”   
Jennifer gasped. “Did we ever get together again?” she asked, horrified.   
“I’ll get to that” Doc said. “The first time after that incident was horrible. Marty blamed me to his parents, you blamed him to your parents, but I’m sure that from the way they acted around me afterwards, they must have thought I couldn’t have been entirely innocent on the matter. And of course, I blamed myself. I felt horrible during that time, knowing that the future had been ruined – how was I ever going to justify inviting you both when the first time travel experiment rolled around now?”   
“But we were there” Jennifer pointed out. “You said so yourself. So we did patch things up, right?”   
“Sort of” Doc replied. “George and Lorraine cooled down first, and by late spring, early summer of 1984 they started making the first contacts with me again – careful, of course, not to hurt their son. It took some time, but eventually, Marty and I got on speaking terms again, and we got back into being friends. You and Marty became friends again shortly thereafter, still in the summer of 1984.”   
“Just friends?” Jennifer asked.   
“I’m afraid so” Doc said. “From what both of you’ve told me, you liked each other perfectly well, but just as a good friend – dating no longer entered the mix.”   
Jennifer groaned, leaning back. “That’s _just_ what I needed to hear” she muttered. “After all that work I did on getting Marty away from Lorraine and wishing that we were boyfriend and girlfriend again, we’re not even _dating_ in this new world?!” She stared at Doc. “Is there any way we can go back in time and prevent all this?”   
“I’m afraid not” Doc said. “Not only has it got paradox potential, but I wouldn’t know where to go, and what to do. Human relationships develop gradually, and we can’t risk making things worse. Even if you prevent that night, it’s possible that these versions of you were already on the road towards a break-up, and this just accelerated it. Of course, that’s just a theory, but…” He sighed, looking at Jennifer’s saddened face with sympathy. “It’s not really all that bad, Jennifer, Marty. Even if your other selves didn’t choose that route, _you_ can still get back together.”   
“Now, wait a second, Doc” Marty immediately interrupted, before Jennifer could say anything. “I don’t want to offend you or Jennifer, but can we hold off on that? I mean, Jennifer, I barely know you. You’re attractive, you’re nice, and I think you’d make a great girlfriend, but… well, I’d like to have some time to make that decision. So in a way, the fact that the new me isn’t expected to date somebody is kind of a relief to me.”   
“You’re right, Marty” Jennifer muttered. It had been kind of foolish of her to assume still-amnesiac Marty was just going to accept her into his life right away. “It’s your decision. I’m sorry, I just hadn’t realized that…”   
“Things can be a lot more confusing than they appear to be, Jennifer” Doc mused. “Especially when they concern time travel. But Marty’s not entirely right – at least not on the part where he said he’s not expected to date anybody now.”   
Marty and Jennifer stared at the inventor, stunned. “I’ve got a new girlfriend?” Marty asked, confused.   
“Both of you do” Doc said, not capable of hiding a smirk at seeing the look on their faces. “I assure you, it’s not very far along, so it won’t look odd if you break up, but you do have an unofficial ‘partner’ in your lives now.”   
Jennifer frowned. “Who?”   
Doc grinned. “That’ll be a surprise to you – especially since, from what I’ve seen in Marty’s photographs back in 1955, he didn’t even exist in your reality. You are dating Arthur Emmett McFly.”   
Jennifer’s head jerked up at that, and she rapidly switched staring at Marty, then at Doc, then at Marty, and finally back to Doc. After a few seconds of silence, she finally managed to utter: “Who?”   
“Arthur McFly” Doc replied. “Named Artie to distinguish him from his grandfather. He’s Marty’s twin brother – fraternal, mind you, but his twin nonetheless. George originally called me right after their birth not just to invite me to come over and see their boys, but because he was wondering what changes could have been caused to the timeline. I was surprised as well.”   
“But wouldn’t he have known about Marty’s extra sibling beforehand?” Jennifer asked. “In most cases, people know they have twins before they are born.”   
“He would, but I suppose it only must have hammered home after their birth that he had two sons now, not one” Doc said. “It shook me up, too.”   
“What’s he like?” Marty asked. “Is he older or younger than me?”   
“Than I” Doc corrected. “Artie’s five minutes younger than you are, but a bit taller. He looks similar to you, but because you’re fraternal twins you’re not identical. You two get along well, and I’m a friend of Artie too, but we’re nowhere as close as I’ve always been to you, and to Jennifer.”   
“…interesting” Jennifer muttered. “So, what am I supposed to say if I encounter him and he expects me to be his girlfriend… but I don’t have a clue who he is?”   
“Just try to act natural, Jennifer” Doc said. “If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything. Like I told you, you’ve only started dating very recently, so you’re not all that close. Just try to act like you’ve always known him and I’m sure he won’t notice. Much.”   
“That’s very reassuring, Doc” Jennifer deadpanned.   
“I mean it” Doc said, shrugging. “And if you two get closer, I wouldn’t have any problems with revealing the time machine to him. As long as he – and you, of course – would understand that it should remain a secret to the outer world.”   
Jennifer nodded and pondered it all, which gave Marty the chance to speak up. “Who’s my girlfriend?” he asked.   
“I’m not sure what purpose that information would serve to you, seeing as the name wouldn’t mean anything to you due to having amnesia, but her name is Catherine” Doc said. “Catherine MacArthur. You told me tonight that you’d gone on your second date just a few days ago, so you’re not all that close either.”   
“Good” Marty mumbled. Remembering something, he added: “So, how about taking me to the future now? I mean, life was bearable here considering I at least somewhat knew my girlfriend – Jennifer. Not knowing even my alleged girlfriend…”   
Doc sighed. “I guess it is rather hard for you to face all of this. But escaping to the future isn’t an option, Marty. Especially not since the future might give you so much new technology to take in as well.”   
Marty shrugged. “I could manage that” he said. “And I really want to see the future… and besides, sleep won’t be an issue, since you ought to be tired too.” He stared at the inventor. “Please, Doc. At least give me some more time to adjust.”   
Doc sighed. “All right, all right. But don’t complain with me if you’re too overawed.”   
Marty snorted. “That’s something I’d never be.”   
Doc smirked, and turned the engine back on. The remainder of their drive to the Brown house was quiet, with Jennifer reminiscing about her changed life and Marty not having much to say either. They parked the van and refueled the plutonium reactor, and after setting the destination time to 2015, Doc drove them to Jennifer’s home in the DeLorean. It was only when they pulled into the Parker driveway that Jennifer smiled faintly.   
“You know, it only ought to have been two hours since I last was here” she said. “Feels like a month.”   
Doc chuckled. “That’s one of the peculiarities of time travel. I suspect you’ll get used to it if you make any further journeys.”   
“I hope so, although I’d like to postpone that for a while” Jennifer said. “The present is difficult enough for me.” She stepped out, and turned back, shaking her friends’ hands. “Take care, Doc. You too, Marty.”   
“We will” Marty said. Doc nodded.   
“Good” Jennifer replied. She was about to walk off, but hesitated and turned back. “Can you look me up in the future? I’d really like to know what happens to me.”   
“You know I can’t tell you” Doc said. “Not all, at least. But I might be able to tell you some broad outlines, and in any case, I should check whether you’re all right.” He smiled. “See you in the future.”   
Jennifer chuckled, and closed the gull-wing door. She stepped back as the DeLorean drove off the driveway and onto the street. Then, it accelerated down the street, rapidly heading up to eighty-eight miles per hour. After a few flashes of light and sonic booms, it was gone, fire trails left behind. Jennifer sighed warily, and turned to her house.


	22. Wrapping Things Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, everyone, this is the final chapter which finishes off the story. I hope you all enjoyed it, and nevertheless still take the trouble to read this last chapter and then review. I'd say more, but I'm not sure what else to add, so this is it. Please read and review, even if your assessment is largely negative, as it might help me in the future. There will be another story about the pairing up after this, but that might not be for some time.

**Chapter Twenty-Two**

October 26, 1985  
10:05 AM PDT  
Hill Valley, California

Jennifer Parker smiled nervously, as she walked over to Marty’s house. She just couldn’t decide whether or not she had dreamed the whole time travel adventure. On one hand, she had just woken up in her bed, safe at home, so that indicated the whole thing wasn’t real. However, if it had been a dream, it wouldn’t have been as vivid, she was sure of that. She usually forgot her dreams within an hour or two after waking up, and this one wouldn’t be any different. However, she still remembered with some clarity all she had done during the past week, and how she had felt throughout all of it.   
What confused her even more was that this morning, she’d received a telephone call from Marty’s mother Lorraine, asking her to come over. Lorraine’s voice had somehow sounded differently, but that wasn’t the strange part – it was that Lorraine never asked her to come over, since they didn’t like each other. Jennifer figured that it could be that Lorraine wanted to see her humiliated if Marty wanted to break up with her for some reason, but that theory struck her as rather implausible.   
As she walked towards Marty’s house in Lyon Estates, she could see George and Lorraine standing outside, smiling. Jennifer’s eyes went wide. Lorraine looked remarkably thin, and she seemed to have a lot more energy. George had also changed – he looked confident, wore glasses and it was clear that they were a happily married couple. Jennifer had to hold onto some garbage cans, being shocked by all this.   
“Are you okay, Jennifer?” George asked, concerned. “You look a little pale.”   
“I guess I do” Jennifer muttered. “I can’t believe this. I thought I’d dreamed all about time travel, but… it’s real?” She stiffened, remembering something else. “And Marty and I are no longer dating?”   
Lorraine frowned. “That’s right” she said. “Are you saying that it wasn’t the case, in the timeline you came from?”   
“Yeah” Jennifer said. “I told you in 1955, didn’t I? That Marty was my boyfriend.”   
Lorraine fidgeted nervously. “You did” she muttered. “Marty and I ignored you at first, of course, but…” She sighed. “I’m so torn whether I want to see Doc and Marty return or not. On one hand, I’d like to see my son again… but on the other hand, I’m not ready to face my ex-boyfriend.”   
“It’s been thirty years, Lorraine” George said, putting an arm around her shoulders. “You should get over it.”   
“I know, and I have – mostly” Lorraine replied. “But it hasn’t been thirty years for Marty, hasn’t it? Or at least, that’s what Doc told us.” She shook her head. “I wish none of this had ever happened. That Doc had never invented the time machine in the first place.”   
“I don’t think you should say that” Jennifer said, softly. “You wouldn’t know it, but in the timeline we’re from, you two were much worse off. You, Mr. McFly, couldn’t say no to anyone… or at least, that’s how Marty put it… and you were working for Biff Tannen. And you, Mrs. McFly, well… let’s just say you drank a lot.”   
The two McFly’s visibly paled at that comment. “All right, consider that statement withdrawn” Lorraine muttered. “I can’t believe I’d ever turn into an alcoholic.”   
Jennifer nodded. “So, why are we still standing out here?” she asked.   
“Doc told us he’d return sometime around 10:15 AM in the morning” George said. “And considering that he had a time machine, I suppose he’d be fairly precise with that. So, basically, we’re waiting.”   
Jennifer nodded, walking over to them. “How much time do we have left?” she asked.   
George checked his watch. “About two minutes” he said.   
Lorraine then had a thought, and smiled. “George,” she said, “if Jennifer really came from a world where you worked for Biff, then she wouldn’t know about the book you wrote.”   
“You wrote a book, Mr. McFly?” Jennifer asked. “A science-fiction novel, I suppose?”   
George beamed proudly. “Yup” he said. “You inspired me. Not directly, but you did give me the confidence I needed to get somewhere in writing, and not to give up. And I’ll tell you, I needed every single bit of that confidence. It took me several years before I could get even a short story published, and it’s been thirty years since 1955, and only now I’ve published my first novel.”   
“Georgie’s exaggerating” Lorraine said, giving her husband an affectionate smile. “You’ve published some major short stories, and there are already talks about a sequel to your current novel. It took you some time to make it, but now you definitely have.”   
“Well, I can’t make that sequel” George pointed out. “My novel was roughly based on what happened in 1955, so I can’t really continue on from there.”   
“You based your novel on that?” Jennifer asked. “I thought you wrote science fiction.”   
“That was science fiction” George pointed out. “Remember how you played an alien to convince me to date Lorraine?” He shrugged. “At some point shortly after the dance I thought that would make a great science fiction love story, and, well, the rest is history. It’s called ‘A Match Made In Space’.”   
Jennifer smiled. “That sounds interesting” she said. “I’d love to read that one day.”   
“That’ll be $ 25” George replied. “The book is already fairly successful in the stores, and I think it’s going to hit record sales very soon. Although I suppose I could give it to you for free, seeing as without you, I never would have written it.”   
Jennifer smiled, and she was about to say something when suddenly a gust of wind swept through the driveway and triple sonic booms rang. Recognizing it, Jennifer rapidly staggered back as the time machine appeared and shortly thereafter came to a halt, hitting the garbage cans.   
“It’ll be half an hour of work to put that upright again” Lorraine muttered.   
The gull-wing doors opened, and Marty and Doc came out, both dressed in some future clothes. Marty walked up to Jennifer, beaming. “Jennifer!” he exclaimed. “Man, are you a sight for sore eyes. Let me look at you.”   
Jennifer chuckled. “Marty, you’re acting like you haven’t seen me in a week.”   
“More like two, actually” he responded, walking up to her. “It’s so good to see you again, Jen.”  
“Relax, Marty” Doc warned. “I know the healing period will be very rapid, but the doctors at the hospital warned you not to make any abrupt or excessive moves for the rest of the day – which is a relative term when time travelling, but I agree with the thought.”   
Jennifer frowned. “Doctors?” she repeated. “Hospital? Did something happen to you?”   
“It was an accident” Marty admitted. “At some point in 2015, I hit my head again. Because of the earlier concussion I’d already sustained, Doc realized this was serious. He took me to 2050 to have me fixed, and even then I was in a coma for two whole days. I did get better in the end – future technology is amazing.” He smiled. “But the positive aspect of the whole affair is – it cured my memory loss! Somehow! I have my memory back – of both timelines!”   
“That’s great!” Jennifer exclaimed, hugging her sort-of boyfriend. “Uh, what do you mean by both timelines?”   
“I mean I remember both what happened before and after we time travelled” Marty explained, scratching his head. “It’s very confusing.”   
“I guess so” Jennifer agreed, wondering if those new memories would eventually catch up to her, too.   
Marty then turned to George and Lorraine. “Hi, mom” he muttered, shyly. “Hi, Dad.”   
“Hi Marty” Lorraine replied, just as nervously. “Good to see you again, son.”   
Marty nodded. “I guess you kept your promise” he said. “About treating me well.”   
“I tried to” Lorraine said. “No matter what happened between us in 1955… Marty, it just wasn’t meant to be. You’re my son.”   
Marty nodded. “And you’re my mother. Let’s just forget about the whole thing.”   
Doc then coughed audibly. “Marty, if you’re ready with your family reunion, you might want to tell your parents and Jennifer what we’re here for.”   
“Oh yeah!” Marty exclaimed. “Jennifer, you’ve got to come back with us!”   
“Where?” Jennifer asked.   
“Back to the future!” Doc and Marty replied simultaneously.   
Jennifer grinned, and followed Marty and Doc into the car. They drove out of the McFly driveway and down the streets. She then frowned, realizing something. “Hey, Doc, shouldn’t you back up?” she pointed out. “We don’t have enough road to get up to 88.”   
Marty smiled mischievously, while Doc grinned. “Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads!”   
And with that, he pressed a button, and the time machine’s wheels folded in and the car lifted up. Jennifer could see out of her window that George and Lorraine were staring at them with amazement. The DeLorean then blasted off through the skies, turned around and rapidly accelerated to 88 miles per hour. Jennifer held onto her seat as they were transported into the future. 

**THE END.**


End file.
